George Allen (American politician)

George Allen
Junior Senator, Virginia
In office January 2001–Present
Preceded by	Charles Robb
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2007)
Personal details
Nationality	american
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	(1) Anne Patrice Rubel, divorced; (2) Susan Brown

George Felix Allen (born March 8, 1952 in Whittier, California) is a Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.

Early years

His father George Herbert Allen was a legendary NFL coach who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. His mother was an immigrant of Italian/French/Spanish background from Tunisia. The family lived in Southern California until 1957, when they moved to Chicago, Illinois after George Sr. got a job with the Chicago Bears. The family moved back to Southern California in 1966 after Allen's father was named head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.[1]

Education

Allen received a B.A. degree with distinction in history and then a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. In 1976, while a university student, Allen was selected as Chairman of Young Virginians for Reagan.

Government career

Allen began his political career as a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1983 to 1991, representing a district in Albemarle County. On November 5, 1991, he won a special election to fill the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Virginia's 7th District, the former home district of the Byrd family dynasty. Incumbent congressman D. French Slaughter, Jr. had resigned due to a series of strokes.

Allen's career in the House was short-lived, however. In the 1990s round of redistricting, Allen's district, which stretched from the fringes of the Washington suburbs to Charlottesville and included much of the Shenandoah Valley, was eliminated even though Virginia gained a congressional seat as a result of the 1990 Census. This came because the Justice Department required Virginia to draw a majority-black district in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act. His district was split between three neighboring districts. While his home in Earlysville (a suburb of Charlottesville) was placed in the 5th District of Louis F. Payne, Jr., most of his district was placed in the 10th District of Frank Wolf. Allen moved to Mount Vernon and prepared to challenge Wolf in a primary, but Virginia Republican figures made it known that he would have no future in the party by waging such a challenge. Allen was therefore forced to leave the House in 1993.

Governor

In 1993 Allen was elected the 67th Governor of Virginia, serving from 1994 to 1998. As governor, he was recognized for educational improvements such as the implementation of rigorous academic standards and accountability. His tenure also included the overhaul of the juvenile justice system, work-oriented welfare reform and the abolition of the lenient parole policy for felons. Virginia, especially Northern Virginia, boomed during this time period, particularly in the technology area. In 1997, he proclaimed April as Confederate History and Heritage Month and called the Civil War "a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights." [2]

Allen could not run for re-election because Virginia's constitution does not allow a governor to succeed himself; as of 2006 Virginia is the only state that has such a provision. [3]

United States Senate

Allen was elected to the Senate in 2000, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Chuck Robb, son-in-law of the late President Lyndon B. Johnson. He is a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Allen was appointed in the last Congress to serve as the chairman of the High Tech Task Force. Allen was unanimously elected as a member of the Senate Republican leadership as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002, and oversaw a net gain of four seats for the Republicans in the 2004 Senate elections. His successor as NRSC chair is Senator Elizabeth Dole.

In June of 2005, Allen co-sponsored a resolution that had the Senate formally apologize for never passing federal legislation despite the lynching of nearly 5,000 people between 1882 and 1968. While spearheading this apology, Allen stood in the Senate and said, "I rise today to offer a formal and heartfelt apology to all the victims of lynching in our history, and for the failure of the United States Senate to take action when action was most needed."

2006 re-election campaign

Main article: Virginia U.S. Senate election, 2006

Allen's current term in the Senate expires in January 2007. He is seeking re-election in 2006.

A recent poll placed Allen's approval rating at 53%. By comparison, fellow Republican Virginia senator John Warner has an approval rating of 57% in the same poll. [4] Nonetheless, most analysts agree that Allen is still the heavy favorite for re-election.

Virginia businessman Harris Miller (D) and former Secretary of the Navy James H. Webb, a supporter of Allen in 2000 [5], are currently seeking the Democratic nomination. Gail Parker, a retired USAF Major and Pentagon budget analyst, has announced her intention to run as the Green Party candidate.

2008 Presidential bid

In a survey of 175 Washington insiders conducted by National Journal's "The Hotline" and released April 29, 2005, Allen was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the 2008 Presidential election. [6] A few days later, Allen held fundraising events in New Hampshire, the state with the important first presidential primary, although his campaign manager said that the trip was solely to raise money for Allen's 2006 re-election campaign. [7]

Allen has been mentioned by Rush Limbaugh on numerous occasions, and also on Hannity & Colmes, as being the Republican presidential hopeful most likely continue the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan. [8]

Democrats have accused Allen of changing his positions on key issues to appeal to the Republican Party's conservative base, in preparation for the primaries in 2008. [9] For example, although he had previously supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, he modified his stance on August 7, 2005 to confine the funding to research that did not destroy embryos. [10]

In the May 8, 2006 issue of The New Republic, Ryan Lizza wrote an article on George Allen. The piece included a high school yearbook photo showing a young George Allen displaying a confederate symbol lapel pin on his left collar. The Allen campaign issued a response on April 27, 2006: "It's a predictable hit piece by a magazine that has a well known liberal slant and it is not surprising that they would write a piece where they would try to portray a conservative Republican Senator as racist."

Personal

Allen's mother immigrated from Tunisia, and was "Italian, French and a little Spanish" and according to Allen, was imprisoned by the Nazi regime in World War II Germany.^[11] His father was of Dutch-Irish and Scottish descent.

He was formerly married to Anne Patrice Rubel until their divorce in 1983. Allen married Susan Brown in 1986 and the now have three children Tyler, Forrest, and Brooke. Sen. and Mrs. Allen are residents of Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Allen is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is fond of using football metaphors, a tendency which has been remarked upon by journalists and commentators. [12] [13]

Autobiography of sister Jennifer Allen

Allen's younger sister Jennifer Allen alleges in her memoir Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter that Allen visited sadistic attacks on his younger siblings during his childhood. She claims that Allen held her by her feet over Niagara Falls; struck her boyfriend in the head with a pool cue; threw his brother Bruce through a glass sliding door; tackled his brother Gregory, breaking his collarbone; and dragged Jennifer upstairs by her hair. In the book, she wrote, "George hoped someday to become a dentist . . . George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession--getting paid to make people suffer."

Confederate Sympathies

Allen has a long history of interest in Southern culture in general and the culture and history of the early South in general. While in Los Angeles, Allen developed an affinity for Southern culture, although he had never lived in the South. Allen received his first pair of cowboy boots while in L.A., and learned to dip from his father's players. Allen's favorite T.V. show at the time was Hee Haw, and he enjoyed listening to country music. A high school yearbook photo of Allen shows him with a Confederate flag lapel pin, and Allen reportedly drove a car with a Confederate flag license plate on the front as a teenager. During his campaign for governor in 1993, Allen admitted to having a Confederate flag displayed in his living room.

See also

• Virginia U.S. Senate election, 2006

External links

• Official site
• Campaign site
• George Allen for President
• Politics1 - P2008: George Allen
• 2004 campaign finance data
• Sen. George Allen - 2008 Presidential Wire
• George Allen - 2008 Republican Rankings
• George Allen on the Issues
• "The Political Environment Isn't George Allen's Friend" -The Rothenberg Political Report

Footnotes

1. ^ - See Road to the White House, C-SPAN, Address to the Greenville County, South Carolina, Republican Party Dinner rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/rwh/rwh071005.rm