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Last Updated June 22, 2005
George Allen, a Republican elected in 2000, is one of only six Virginians to serve as governor and senator (the others were James Monroe, John Tyler, Claude Swanson, Harry Byrd Sr. and the man he beat, Charles Robb). Allen grew up in Illinois and California, graduating from high school in Palos Verdes. At that point his father had moved to Virginia to become the highly successful coach of the Washington Redskins ("Hit hard and good things will happen"), and he advised his son to go to college in the area. The younger George Allen graduated from college and law school at the University of Virginia. In 1977 he moved to a country home near Charlottesville and practiced law--wearing boots and chewing tobacco (he's a Copenhagen man). In 1982 he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he was a conservative backbencher while Robb was governor. In a 1991 special election he won a seat in the U.S. House, which the Democratic legislature promptly redistricted out from under him. Out of office, he started running for governor in 1993. He maneuvered to get the support of religious conservatives at the 13,000-delegate June 1993 state convention, perhaps the largest legislative body in the history of democracy. The Democratic nominee, Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, was better known and had a moderate record on many issues, though she backed some forms of gun control and was pro-abortion rights. Democrats thought gun control and the religious right would hurt Republicans. But Allen won by a whopping 58%-41% margin. Allen's term as governor (Virginia is the last state to limit governors to one term) was more successful than many had expected. His achievements included a more permissive concealed weapons law, abolition of parole (a big issue in the 1993 campaign), parental notification for abortions and welfare reform that required recipients to work after 90 days and cut off benefits after two years--which resulted in a big decline in welfare rolls. Allen was regarded by his foes as an intellectual lightweight, but his education reforms included Standards of Learning that were probably the toughest in the nation. But in 1995 the legislature rejected Allen's tax cut, and in elections that fall, despite a major effort by Allen, Republicans fell short of winning majorities in the legislature (they finally did so in 1999). Democrats disliked him for his partisanship and activist conservatism; he has a cheerful, sunny temperament but also a penchant for harsh conservative rhetoric. To the 1994 Republican state convention, he said, "My friends--and I say this figuratively--let's enjoy knocking their soft teeth down their whining throats." But he had 68% job approval when he left the governorship. Out of office in 1998, Allen joined a Richmond law firm, but it was widely expected that he would run against Charles Robb in 2000. His record in the Senate was among the more conservative of Democrats, but he found himself in political trouble in 1994 because of scandal. In the Democratic primary Robb beat Delegate Virgil Goode (later, as congressman, an Independent and then a Republican) by the unimpressive margin of 58%-34% and in the general, against Oliver North, the epicenter of the Iran-contra scandal, who spent $20 million, Robb won by only 46%-43%. Robb continued to compile a moderate voting record and worked hard on military issues and on programs with appeal in rural areas, but Allen led in early polls. The centerpiece of Allen's campaign was a $1,000 per child tax credit for educational expenses for both public and private schools. Allen, a bit on the defensive on gun control, said he would vote to renew the assault weapons ban. In the last weeks of the campaign, Robb accused Allen of an "intolerable" and "appalling" record on racial issues; Democratic flyers attacked him for opposing a federal Martin Luther King Holiday, for displaying a Confederate flag in his house and for displaying a noose in his law office. Allen won by a narrow 52%-48% margin. His votes tracked very closely with George W. Bush's. Robb, targeting the suburbs, carried Northern Virginia, but by only a 51%-49% margin. With his military credentials, he won in Tidewater Virginia, but by only 52%-48%. Allen carried the Richmond area 55%-45%, and won an even bigger margin, 57%-43%, in the one-third of the state outside these metropolitan areas. A bad sign for Democrats in the future: Robb, elected governor in 1981, carried voters 60 and older; Allen, elected governor in 1993, carried voters under 60, and by wider margins. Allen has been active on technology issues. In 2003 he sponsored a bill with $3.7 billion for nanotechnology research and backed a CAN-Spam bill to regulate spam; both passed. He was the lead sponsor of extending the ban on Internet taxes to 2005, which became law in November 2001; in January 2003 he called for making the ban permanent, a measure opposed by many governors of both parties. Allen persisted and, after negotiations with John McCain, secured a four-year extension, with states allowed to continue existing taxes on DSL lines for two years and to continue existing Internet taxes levied before the first ban in 1998; Voice Over Internet Protocol could also be taxed. In 2001 he sponsored a bill to give citizenship to a Chinese scholar arrested while on vacation in Beijing; she later was prosecuted for passing information to the Chinese, but Allen said he didn't regret his action. Allen sponsored $1.25 billion in grants for computers and technology for historically black colleges and universities; it was blocked in the House. He also proposed that the Senate apologize for failing to enact anti-lynching laws in the 1930s and 1940s. He supported the tobacco buyout and voted for the Senate version even though it included FDA regulation of tobacco; the law eventually passed did not include that provision. Although he said in his 2000 campaign he would support extension of the assault weapons ban, Allen changed his mind on 2004 and called it "a meaningless, toothless law that has virtually no impact on crime." His voting record was close to that of his Virginia colleague John Warner, but on that issue he took a stand opposite that of his Senate colleague, as he did when he voted for expanding healthcare benefits for Reserve and Guard soldiers on inactive status and when he voted against requiring seat belt use. He also differed on Virginia's taxes. While John Warner supported Governor Mark Warner's tax increase proposal in March 2004, Allen went to Richmond and, with former Democratic Governor Douglas Wilder, and argued against any increase and attacked Mark Warner as "unprincipled." After the 2002 election, Allen was picked to succeed Bill Frist as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The Democrats' campaign committee actually outraised Allen's during some reporting periods, but the NRSC was able to fund the races it wanted to. Some Republicans worried that divisive primaries would hurt their candidates in November; Allen cheerfully referred to them an "intrasquad scrimmages"--he is given to football metaphors--and said they led to stronger general election candidates. In the end most of the close races went Allen's way: Republicans picked up open Democratic seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana and beat Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota, while losing open seats in Illinois and Colorado. That changed the Republicans' majority in the Senate from a tenuous 51-49 to a more robust 55-45. "We exceeded all expectations," Allen said. Allen has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008, and his fundraising and travel as NRSC chairman would be assets in a national campaign. Allen waved aside questions about this. "My father always told his players, 'The future is now.' You pay attention to the task at hand. The future takes care of itself." The task at hand in early 2005 was preparing for the 2006 Senate race. The big unanswered question in early 2005 is whether Governor Mark Warner, ineligible to run for a second term in November 2005, would run against Allen in 2006.
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