Richmond Times Dispatch: ‘08 Speculation a Distraction in Allen Senate Bid

By Tyler Whitley

U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., had trouble staying on the subject when he kicked off his re-election bid last week.

Instead of answering questions about his Senate plans for the next six years, Allen was asked by reporters whether he would serve out his full term.

Allen said he is focused on re-election but did not promise to serve a full term - adding speculation that he has another focus, seeking the Republican nomination to run for president in 2008.

Allen’s travels this year have taken him to North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Texas, California and New Hampshire.

Allen said he could not predict the future, but he quoted his late football coach father’s famous phrase, “the future is now.”

Two Democratic opponents, Fairfax County computer executive Harris Miller and former Navy Secretary James Webb, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have had a field day with Allen’s out-of-state travels.

“Welcome back to Virginia, Senator Allen,” the Webb campaign said.

“George Allen is the only senator from Virginia who has ever kicked off his re-election campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina,” Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said.

Karl Frisch, the DSCC spokesman, got in this zinger:

“He clearly prefers the people of Columbia, South Carolina, to those of Columbia, Virginia.”

Because The New York Times, reporting from Iowa, said Allen appeared to be bored with the Senate, Democrats dubbed his kickoff as the “Bored Ambition Tour.”

Allen says he was mischaracterized. He is not bored with the job, just frustrated by the slow pace of the Senate, he says.

Dick Wadhams, Allen’s campaign manager, dismissed the comments as the carping of opponents who have nothing to say about their own candidacies.

“They are just anti-George Allen,” Wadhams said.

Miller and Webb are vying for the Democratic nomination in a June 13 primary. They haven’t limited their attacks to Allen but have begun attacking each other.

Stuart Rothenberg, who writes a political newsletter in Washington, called the Democrats’ criticism “poppycock.”

A politician in one office seeking a higher office happens all the time, he said.

“Senator [Hillary Rodham] Clinton is running for president; John McCain is running for president; Senator [John] Kerry is still running for president,” he said.

Unless Allen misses a key vote, the voters will not hold it against him, Rothenberg said.

Texas voters were thrilled when Gov. George W. Bush ran for president because they felt he would help Texas more, he said.

Republican activists don’t appear to be upset.

“There are people who are always going to throw stones at him,” said James Davis, the Chesterfield County GOP chairman. “George has been a good senator.”

Catherine Colgan of Virginia Beach, a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000, also praised Allen’s performance as senator.

“A lot could happen between now and the presidential nomination,” she added.

As for Allen’s reported comment that he is bored, Colgan said she knows Allen well enough to know he was joking.

“He was just saying that things in Washington don’t move as fast as they did when he was running the state,” she said.

Allen was governor from 1994 to 1998. He was elected to the Senate in 2000.

But political scientist Quentin Kidd said, “I think Senator Allen is in trouble right now.”

Kidd, who teaches at Christopher Newport University, said Allen has compiled a record of little accomplishment during his five years in the Senate and is too closely allied with an increasingly unpopular President Bush.

In a state that may be shifting away from Republicans toward Democrats, his poll rating of 51 percent “is a sign of trouble,” Kidd said.

“It doesn’t help that he is going around the country trying to run for president,” he added.

Allen’s kickoff tour took him to 11 Virginia localities. Most of the events were sparsely attended, but Allen aides said they did not try to drum up a large crowd.

April 17, 2006 | Filed Under DSCC, News Mentions 

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