Politics

George Allen gears up for another Senate run against Jim Webb

wrahn Contributor
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Former Virginia Sen. George Allen will challenge incumbent Jim Webb in next year’s election, according to Politico.

Webb and Allen previously faced off in 2006. Allen, once considered an early front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, landed in hot water after he referred to a young Indian-American supporter of Webb as “macaca.” Although Allen claimed that it was just a “made up word” that he had never heard before, it is actually an obscure ethnic slur used by white colonists in North Africa, the birthplace of Allen’s mother. After the incident, a college classmate told Salon that Allen “used the n-word on a regular basis” while attending the University of Virginia. Webb went on to win the election by 0.39 percent of the vote.

Early polling shows a close race between Allen and Webb in a 2012 rematch. There is some doubt that Webb will run for re-election, however, in which case former Virginia Governor and current DNC Chairman Tim Kaine would be the likely Democratic nominee.