Ted Stevens has lost his bid to be the first convicted felon elected to the U.S. Senate.

Democrat Mark Begich has defeated Stevens. Election officials say Begich has a 3,724 vote lead with around 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted next Tuesday.

This marks the end of a 40-year career in the Senate for Stevens who was convicted of 7 felonies just 8 days before the election. A jury found him guilty of failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company executive at the center of a corruption probe in Alaska.

This means all of us reporters who have been camped out in Alaska- first because of Sarah Palin and then for the Stevens-Begich race- can thaw out somewhere warm.

Stevens, on the other hand still faces uncertainty. He could be sentenced in December or January. He is still seeking to overturn the convictions on appeal.

Looks like a Republican institution is on his way out. Senator Ted Stevens now trails Democrat Mark Begich in the Alaska Senate race by 2,374 votes, with just over 10,000 left to be counted.

I spoke with Begich right after the new numbers were posted, and he stopped just short of declaring victory.

He told me that he’s confident, but then went even further talking about how he’ll be different than Stevens – a man criticized in the lower 48 for being a convicted felon and prolific pork barrel spender, but widely revered in his home state where he’s got the nicknames Uncle Ted and Senator for Life.

The trouble began for Stevens when a federal grand jury indicted him on charges that he failed to disclose gifts given to him by an oil services company executive. Just a week before the election, Stevens was convicted of 7 felony counts yet continued to seek re-election.

No word yet on a concession from Stevens who has held the job for 40 years, longer than any other Republican.

The nation’s coldest state continues to be one of the hottest political locations, a full two weeks after the election.

Republican Senator Ted Stevens, who has among his nicknames ‘Uncle Ted’ and ‘Senator for Life’, is trailing Democrat Mark Begich by 1,022 votes with about 24,000 left to count today.

Many Alaskans voted for Stevens despite the fact he was recently convicted of seven felony counts for failing to disclose gifts from a political ally.

Stevens is a hard man to get to know… unless you’re an Alaskan. I’ve tried to interview him several times over the years, but his spokesman routinely turns down the requests. Stevens has been very defensive over complaints that his infamous “bridge to nowhere” and other pork barrel projects are a waste of taxpayer dollars. Since he fought for Alaska statehood he’s viewed his role as bringing the Last Frontier state up to standard.

But now with his legal problems, it may be the end of the road. He’s obviously weary telling reporters in Washington D.C. that he “hasn’t had a night’s sleep in almost four months”. Even as he sweats the vote count, his Republican colleagues are set to vote Thursday on whether to strip him of his committee assignments. They decided to postpone until after his election is decided, because if he loses to Begich it’s a moot point.

With sentencing on his felony convictions most likely in December or January it’s hard to imagine this working out well for Stevens.

Oh and by the way, Anchorage is set to have a high temperature of 17 degrees today.