More good news for Democratic Senate prospects in 2008. The Caucus reports:

It looks like Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the most senior Republican in the Senate, may have a serious challenger in November.

Democrat Mark Begich, the popular mayor of Anchorage, has scheduled a news conference this afternoon, where he is expected to announce the formation of an exploratory committee. The majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, and other top Democrats have been urging Mr. Begich to jump in the race.

Stevens is under investigation by the FBI for corruption and could be indicted at any time – though one would hope, not before this October.

Begich poses a very serious challenge for Stevens. Begich’s campaign is another that can certainly benefit from strong netroots support. I’d hope his campaign goes to great lengths to beat Stevens with corruption charges and if they run an ad that references “a series of tubes,” I’ll probably have to change my pants.

It’s about time we had a Democrat represent Alaska in the Senate, which I’m pretty sure hasn’t happened since Mike Gravel was in office.

Update:

Jonathan Singer brings up some polling on Alaska.

According to a Hays Research in the field in Alaska back in June, 47 percent of Alaskans viewed Begich positively — including 26 percent viewing him very positively — compared with just 18 percent viewing him negatively. Newer non-partisan Research 2000 polling results from December showed largely the same results, with 48 percent rating Begich favorably and just 19 percent rating him unfavorably.

The head-to-heads for Begich, pitting him up against incumbent Republican Senator Ted Stevens, show the Democrat already leading 47 percent to 41 percent (according to that December R2K poll). Why, might you ask, would a key Alaskan figure like Stevens, who has represented the state for well over half of its existence, poll at 41 percent in a named head-to-head against a challenger — albeit a very popular one? Perhaps this story from July explains it.