Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not saying whether she will vote in November to send the indicted Ted Stevens back to the Senate for a seventh full term.

The indictment has put Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate in a tricky position. If Palin endorses Stevens, it will appear that she is undermining her message of taking on the GOP establishment and cleaning up corruption in her state. But should the popular governor oppose his reelection, it could deliver a blow to Stevens’s campaign and give Democrats ammunition as they try to pick up one more Senate seat.

Stevens has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of concealing more than $250,000 of gifts from a now-defunct oil-services company. The trial is slated to begin later this month and could conclude before Election Day.

Democrats in the state are trying to make an issue out of Palin’s wavering approach to Stevens.

“Gov. Palin can’t have it both ways,” said Bethany Lesser, spokeswoman for the Alaska Democratic Party. “Palin claims to spearhead reform in Alaska, rooting out corruption. But so far she has stood steadfast by indicted Sen. Stevens’s side. Alaskans and the nation deserve to know once and for all – where does Palin stand on Stevens for Senate?”

Aaron Saunders, a spokesman for the Stevens campaign, said the governor and senator have had a “strong working relationship for many years.”

“They have been supportive of each other’s past campaigns and we fully expect that to continue this fall,” Saunders said. He added that the Alaska Democratic Party is “clearly panicking” after seeing the latest poll numbers and is resorting to “desperate, nasty attacks.”

A new poll conducted by a Democratic pollster said that over the last three weeks, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich’s (D) 17-point lead against Stevens has dropped to just three percentage points. The poll was conducted after Palin was chosen to be McCain’s running mate.

Saunders said Palin has “not said anything explicitly either” way about endorsing Stevens. But he was unsure whether she had been asked about the race since early July.

When Stevens — a legend in the state and the Senate’s longest-serving GOP senator — was indicted on seven felony counts, Palin said she shared her state’s “dismay” over the indictment, which she said “rocks the foundation of our state.”

But despite pressure that he resign, Palin said it “would be premature at this point” to ask him to leave the Senate as the legal process unfolded.

In the final two weeks before Election Day in 2006, Stevens campaigned for Palin during her gubernatorial campaign against Democrat Tony Knowles and cut a television ad for her.

After Palin was chosen as McCain’s running mate, Stevens issued a statement praising the selection.

“I have known and worked with Sarah for over a decade — from her service as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in her role as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, and most recently as our governor,” Stevens said. “She is attentive to her job and family, brings people together, and is able to make tough decisions.”