George Allen

George Felix Allen (born March 8, 1952 in Whittier , California ) is an American politician . The Republican was governor of Virginia from 1994 to 1998 and one of the two senators for the state of Virginia from 2001 to 2007 .

Life

Allen was born and raised in California, but moved to Virginia when he was 19. His father was a famous NFL football coach. He attended the University of Virginia Law School from 1974 to 1977 and is now a lawyer.

From 1982 to 1991 he was a member of the Virginia House of Representatives . From 1991 to 1993 Allen represented the 7th Congressional District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives . In the November 1993 election , he was elected governor of Virginia and held that office from 1994 to 1998. Re-election in Virginia is prohibited by law. In the 2000 Senate election , he beat Chuck Robb , the son-in-law of former President Lyndon B. Johnson , and entered the United States Senate on January 3, 2001 . His mandate ended on January 3, 2007, after he narrowly lost the Senate election on November 7, 2006 to Democratic challenger Jim Webb . Before the lost Senate election, Allen was one of the most promising Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential election, alongside John McCain . In the 2012 election he ran again for his former Senate seat, but lost to Democrat Tim Kaine .

Allegations of racism

In the 2006 Senate election campaign, various more left-wing liberal media outlets ( Washington Post , The Nation , The New Republic ) accused everyone of racism . Allen had a holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. declined and declared April the month of commemoration for the Confederation as governor of Virginia . His show of attachment to the southern flag was also criticized, as the flag stands for oppression, especially among the black population.

At an election rally, Allen addressed an attending election worker from his challenger Webb, the dark-skinned US-born and raised student SR Sidarth, as follows:

“This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film and it's great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come. [...] So, Welcome! Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia! "

In German roughly: “This boy up here in the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's one of my challengers. […] Let's welcome Macaca! Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia! "

Sidarth, who was to videotape Allen's speeches for Webb, also recorded the incident, and Webb's election campaign, after a few days of media coverage of an unconfirmed incident, uploaded it to YouTube , where it quickly spread around the world. The incident is thus one of the first examples of the influence of social media in election campaigns.

"Macaca" denotes a species of monkey ( macaque ) native to North Africa and was used disparagingly by French colonial rulers in Africa to denote dark-skinned natives. Allen defended himself that he had thought nothing of the choice of words; it was an invention on his part. Some media thought this was implausible, as Allen's mother is a French woman who grew up in Tunisia. Allen apologized for his choice of words; he never wanted to offend anyone. However, the incident, which spread around the world, sparked widespread outrage and contributed to Allen’s election defeat. Before this incident, he was polled 16 percent ahead of his challenger Webb.

Web links

Commons : George Allen - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

George Allen in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
George Allen in the National Governors Association (English)
Official Homepage (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Democrats win conrol of the senate. In: MSNBC , Nov. 9, 2006.
↑ Christoph Wilp: Searching for candidates in the USA. In: n-tv .de , March 6, 2007.
^ Robert E. Denton, Jr., Jim A. Kuypers: Politics and Communication in America. Campaigns, Media, and Governing in the 21st Century. Waveland Press, Long Grove, IL 2008, pp. 149 f. ; Emilienne Ireland: Campaigning Online. In: Dennis W. Johnson (Ed.): Routledge Handbook of Political Management. Routledge, New York, London 2009, pp. 166–176, here p. 169 .
↑ Tim Craig, Michael D. Shear: Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology. In: The Washington Post , August 15, 2006; Jake Tapper , Betsy Kulman: The Macaca Heard Round the World. In: ABC News , August 16, 2006.

personal data
SURNAME	Allen, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Allen, George Felix (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	March 8, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH	Whittier , California

[1] Democrats win conrol of the senate. In: MSNBC , Nov. 9, 2006.

[2] Christoph Wilp: Searching for candidates in the USA. In: n-tv .de , March 6, 2007.

[3] Robert E. Denton, Jr., Jim A. Kuypers: Politics and Communication in America. Campaigns, Media, and Governing in the 21st Century. Waveland Press, Long Grove, IL 2008, pp. 149 f. ; Emilienne Ireland: Campaigning Online. In: Dennis W. Johnson (Ed.): Routledge Handbook of Political Management. Routledge, New York, London 2009, pp. 166–176, here p. 169 .

[4] Tim Craig, Michael D. Shear: Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology. In: The Washington Post , August 15, 2006; Jake Tapper , Betsy Kulman: The Macaca Heard Round the World. In: ABC News , August 16, 2006.