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ANCHORAGE - U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, filed for re-election Thursday.

He had announced previously he intended to run for re-election. He discussed Thursday a familiar campaign message that Alaska must develop its natural resources. With a 40 percent dropout rate in many Alaska high schools, he said, the state's youth need hope for employment.

"I'm going to work to get them jobs," he said.

Stevens, 84, filed while under the cloud of a federal investigation. Federal authorities are investigating the senator's ties to a corrupt oil services contractor who helped remodel Stevens' official residence in Girdwood. Stevens has not been charged, and has said he paid all bills presented to him.

The 2008 campaign, he said, will be more divided and more partisan, with issues that are more complicated. But unlike the rest of the country, which has seen job growth, Alaska's development has been stymied by extreme environmentalists, he said.

"I think Alaska really is heading for a fall if we don't wake up and deal with the enemy that is within us," he said.