Ted Stevens loses Alaska Senate election.

The AP reports:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday’s count.

That’s an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

In their GOP conference meeting today, Senate Republicans punted on whether to formally kick Stevens out of their caucus.