Allen, Kaine camps trade snipes on out-of-state fundraising

Democrats accused GOP Senate candidate George Allen of hypocrisy Thursday for comments the former governor made last week while getting a haircut at Staples Barber Shop in Charlottesville.

During the local stop on Sept. 8, Allen criticized his likely Democratic opponent, former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, for campaigning on President Barack Obama’s home turf in Chicago. A week later, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee dinged Allen for campaigning in California

“George Allen’s hypocrisy knows no bounds and his latest attack comes straight from the ‘you can’t make this up’ files,” read a DSCC statement released Thursday. “Last week the Virginia Republican was quoted attacking out of state travel but guess what he’s doing today? George Allen is in Newport Beach, California attending a fundraising luncheon for the Newport Harbor Republican Women.”

The release referenced an article that appeared in The Daily Progress on Sept. 9, in which Allen was quoted as saying: “While I’m here in Charlottesville, at Staples Barber Shop, he’s up in Chicago with President Obama’s big money bundlers, in Chicago, and I’d rather be here at Staples Barber Shop … and in touch with the folks here.”

Allen’s campaign said his remarks were not a critique of out-of-state travel in general, but rather focused on the fact that Kaine, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was in Chicago just after calling for a job creation strategy.

“After more than 30 consecutive months of unemployment above 8 percent, it took zero jobs created in August for Chairman Kaine to finally realize and say in his words, ‘we need a job creation strategy.’ So what did he do? He went to Chicago to raise campaign cash with President Obama’s big money bundlers,” Allen spokesman Bill Riggs said in an emailed statement. “That’s everything you need to know about where Chairman Kaine’s priorities are. And with no plan of his own, the real question is whether Chairman Kaine will continue to stand with President Obama and support more job-crushing tax hikes to pay for another nearly $450 billion stimulus.”

“George Allen wants to have his cake and stuff his face with it,” said Matt Canter, spokesman for the DSCC. “It’s bad enough that George Allen felt it was necessary to launch such a lame attack, but the fact that he did it knowing full well that he was going to raise money out of state just days later takes the cake. The fact is, Allen will say whatever, whenever, to whomever, as long as it serves his own political interests. Clearly, George Allen has nothing to offer Virginians but pathetic attacks and empty rhetoric.”

With 13 months remaining in the race to replace the retiring Sen. Jim Webb, D-Arlington, the two former governors remain neck-and-neck in the polls. In a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, Allen earned 45 percent to Kaine’s 44 percent, within the 2.7 percent margin of error.

The Senate race, expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation in 2012, remains close despite Obama’s declining popularity in the state. The same poll found Obama’s disapproval rating rising to 54 percent, up 6 percentage points from late June.