George Felix Allen (born March 8, 1952, in Whittier, California) is a Republican Senator from Virginia.

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 the suburbs of Chicago, after George Sr. got a job with the Chicago Bears. The family moved back to Southern California (Palos Verdes) in 1966 after Allen’s father was named head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.

Education

Allen graduated from Palos Verdes High School, where he was a member of the student council, the falconry club, and the car club. Allen received a B.A. degree with distinction in history and then a Juris Doctor. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. Allen, a supporter of Nixon and the Vietnam war, was graduating class president at UVA. In 1976, while a university student, Allen was selected as Chairman of Young Virginians for Reagan.

Government Career

Allen has been in politics since high school. He was in student government at Palos Verdes High (1970). He was graduating class president at UVA (1974). He has been a Virginia delegate (1983-1991), congressman (1992-1993), governor (1994-1997), and senator (2001-Present).

His first race for delegate was in 1979, three years after he graduated from law school. He lost that race but won four years later and was a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1983 to 1991, representing a district in Ablemarle 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.

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.

As governor Allen had a stormy relationship with African-American voters in Virginia, many of whom criticized his policies and his embrace of the Confederate flag, which the NAACP condemned as a symbol of racism and hate. As a lawyer, Allen also had a noose hanging from a ficus tree in his office, a decoration critics have charged was racially insensitive, but which Allen has explained as a symbol of his tough stance on law-and-order issues.

In 1995, 1996, and 1997, Allen proclaimed April as Confederate History and Heritage Month and called the Civil War “a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights.” The proclamation did not mention slavery and was subsequently repudiated by Allen’s Republican successor, Governor James Gilmore.

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.

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.

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.”

More recently, Allen joined calls for the Senate to consider an apology for slavery. However, in late May of 2006 he began to back away from a slavery apology proposal, explaining that “[s]o far, we haven’t seen much of a coalition of support for it”.

2006 Re-Election Campaign

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

Virginia businessman Harris Miller (D) and former Secretary of the Navy James H. Webb, a supporter of Allen in 2000, are currently seeking the Democratic nomination.

2008 Presidential bid

In a survey of 175 Washington insiders conducted by National Journals’s “The Hotline” and released April 29, 2005, Allen was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the 2008 Presidential Election.

In a subsequent insider survey by National Journal in May of 2006, Allen had dropped to second place, and John McCain held a 3-1 lead over Allen.

Allen has traveled frequently to Iowa (the first state with a presidential caucus) and New Hampshire (the first state with a presidential primary) and is widely assumed to be preparing a run for president.

Commentators have noted that Allen is positioning himself as a more conservative alternative to John McCain.

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. 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. Allen also once supported the ban on assault weapons but later changed his position.

But Allen has also angered conservatives because he refuses to describe himself as pro-life. “I’m not pro-choice or pro-life,” he once told a voter, according to an October 10, 1993 article in The Washington Post.

Personal

Allen’s mother immigrated from French Tunisia and was “Italian, French and a little Spanish” and according to Allen, was imprisoned by the Nazi Regime in World War II Germany. Allen’s father was of Dutch-Irish and Scottish descent.

Allen 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.

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. Allen has been chewing tobacco since he was introduced to it by his father’s football players in high school.

Biography Source: Wikipedia

Click here to read news related to George Allen.