A Change in Plans for George Allen

David Kerr, a local Democrat and writer, analyzes the beneficial impact of the recent announcement of Harris Miller that he will oppose George Allen this year for the Senate.

Created by tseaver. Last modified 2006-01-23 13:13:00.

Virginia's record in electing Democrats to the U.S. Senate has not been particularly encouraging. The only Democrat elected to the Senate during the past forty years lost his seat in 2000. Since then, Democrats with a more strategic view have pinned their hopes for taking back a Senate seat on 2008 when the senior senator, John Warner is likely to retire. But there are those who don't want to wait that long, figure this is a good year for the party, and want to put up a fight in 2006. The only thing is that their opponent is the sitting Senator, George Allen. Allen, a man who relishes campaigning, loves a good fight and can tap campaign money with ease is a pretty tough target.

But tough opponent or not, for the past two years, there has been a rumbling amongst Virginia Democrats, with a strong prodding from the national party, to find an opponent for Allen. Several prominent names have been courted. There was a brief rumor that Chuck Robb, the man who lost to Allen in 2000, might have an interest, but that notion didn't last long. Don Beyer, the former Lieutenant Governor, was strongly encouraged to give it a try, but he demurred. Then there was Mark Warner. The polls indicated he would defeat Allen, and one last week gave him a substantial edge, but the former governor's eyes are now on the White House and not a bruising fight for a senate seat.

For a little while, it looked like George Allen might get what he really wanted, which was no opponent at all. However, he was not to have his wish. A relatively unknown candidate, Harris Miller from Fairfax County has tossed his hat into the ring. Miller quit his job as President of the Information Technology Association of America to put his full energy into campaigning. While Miller has never held public office before, he is articulate, has a good resume, is known in Democratic circles, and seems to have a lot of passion. He also knows that in unstable years like this, surprising things have been known to happen.

However, even if Miller should be able to mount a serious campaign, something that's still questionable, George Allen knows that he is an excellent position to win in November. But, it's still not the political scenario Allen was hoping for. Nationally, the Democrats are very pleased that he has an opponent. And so, probably, are several members of his own party, but for different reasons. As Chairman of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee in 2004, Allen's skills as recruiter, fundraiser and tactician helped the party take back the Senate. This year, with his successor to that job, Senator Libby Dole not doing nearly as well in the position as Allen had done, many national Republicans were hoping Allen could take to the road to help them out. He can still do that of course, but now, by virtue of having an opponent, he has to spend time in Virginia or face the possibility of an unpleasant surprise.

Behind all of this though are George Allen's plans to run for President. Not only did he want to spend 2006 helping other Republicans, he also wanted to spend some time in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina. Something, that suddenly got a little more difficult. By contrast, two of his prospective opponents for the GOP nomination for the White House, Senator Sam Brownback and Governor Mitt Romney, neither of whom has a reelection fight to worry about, have lots of time to run for President.

None of this means that Allen is in trouble or that his plans to seek the Presidency have suddenly been derailed. They haven't. But it does mean that the time he had hoped to spend campaigning for other Republicans and running for Presidency is going to have to be severely curtailed. And that's certainly not the way George Allen had wanted to spend his year.