"You wouldn't buy a car after only reading advertisements. You would check its past performance.

I urge voters to check George Allen's record; don't be deceived by his speeches or the hype about him.

Most of his adult life has been spent running for office.

As a member of the House of Delegates, he was ineffectual. He ran for the House of Representatives. *His campaign lied about his opponent, Kay Slaughter by showing a false picture of her. Allen won and served for a short, inconsequential time.

He ran for governor, won, served for four years. His treatment of state employees was atrocious. The consequence is that many departments were rendered ineffectual, including housing, education, environmental and others. Many transportation employees were pensioned and then employed as consultants (at great additional cost).

Allen's first budget to the General Assembly was full of reductions in vital services. He planned to cut taxes. Hundreds of people from across the state said the reduction in taxes would be inconsequential but the cuts in services would be very harmful to thousands of needy citizens. Even corporate presidents and other officials denounced Allen's proposals.

The General Assembly overwhelmingly rejected Allen's budget. Republicans and Democrats voted to return to the budget adopted the previous year. This was unprecedented for any governor.

Allen's record regarding Disney's proposed theme park in Prince William County was disgraceful.

He tried to high-pressure the county into approving the park. His administration had to be sued to reveal information that the cost to the state could be $180 million or even $216 million. He boasted about 2,700 workers from the development - most would make $20,000. This was not true. No plans were made for housing for the lower-paid employees. Historians felt history would be distorted. Many officials from Orlando, Fla., warned that Disney must be watched with great care. Fortunately, Disney decided to withdraw in the face of heavy opposition" (Francis Fife from Letters to the Editor, The Daily Progress, September 3, 2000).

*Editors Note: Kathleen Hall Jamieson, author of Dirty Politics (Oxford University Press: New York, 1992, pp.58-59), put it this way:

"The National Republican Congressional Committee prepared an ad for Allen showing a rally against the Gulf War held in Washington, D.C. In the scene a protester is holding a sign reading 'Victory to Iraq! Defeat US Imperialists.' A still photo of Slaughter is then superimposed on the scene. 'Kay Slaughter and the liberals in Congress opposed fighting Saddam Hussein,' says the narrator as the picture dissolves into a headline reading 'City Councilmember Kay Slaughter joined the Coalition's December 7 rally ...' By overlaying a picture of Slaughter on the rally as the announcer describes her opposition to the Gulf War and attendance at a specific rally, the ad invites the false inference that the rally shown was the rally Slaughter attended.

The announcer then states, 'Slaughter opposed President Bush and joned nti-war protesters while our troops were at risk in the Persian Gulf.' Troops in the Gulf are shown with a picture of Allen superimposed over them. The ad closes with Allen meeting with Bush in the White House. 'George Allen and George Bush. Judgment and leadership we can trust.' Slaughter, who said that she would have voted against movement of U.S. troops against Saddam had she been in Congress at the time of the January 1991 vote, noted, 'I am the mother of a National Guardsman, and to imply that I did anything other than give my wholehearted support to our troops is beneath contempt.'

Slaughter had attended a peace rally held in Charlottesville, not the rally shown in the ad. The Charlottesville Daily Progress editorialized that Allen's ad 'is wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong because it drops the tone of the campaign to a new low. Wrong because it oversimplifies a complicated issue. Wrong because it twists facts and video images to deliberately mislead voters.' The ad was aired because the Democrat was closing on the Republican in a traditional Republican stronghold. "