Republican George Allen, who prides himself in being a strong conservative, is facing fierce opposition from Tea Party activists who are actively pushing alternative candidates in the race for Virginia’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Allen has even drawn the dreaded “RINO” label — Republican in Name Only — from groups intent on toppling the frontrunner before the GOP primary in June. Last week, the Virginia Tea Party Patriots launched a campaign that paints Allen as a high-spending, Bush-era conservative, and promised to share that message with Republican voters in the coming months.
His campaign also stumbled recently when it inadvertently included a Tea Party activist as an Allen backer in a list of endorsements. She publicly denied that and right-wing conservatives seized on the slip up as a disingenuous attempt to link himself to the movement. Allen’s campaign apologized for the error.
Allen’s likely opponent in the 2012 general election, former Gov. Tim Kaine, is eager to link Allen to the Tea Party movement. In an email to supporters over the weekend, Kaine’s campaign manager said Allen “has approached this campaign with the same divisive, Tea Party politics that has doomed real reform in Washington.”
