"U.S. Sen. George Allen is leaving the door wide open for a second run for governor of Virginia in 2009.

As Allen, R-Fairfax County, wrapped up his Senate business Friday, he said most of the job options he is considering would allow him to stay in Northern Virginia and actively be involved in the issues he cares about when he leaves public office Jan. 3.

Without disclosing a specific course, the 54-year-old senator spoke fondly of his 13 years in elective office in Richmond, where he served in the House of Delegates from Albemarle County from 1983 to 1991 and as governor from 1994 to 1998, as well as seven years in Washington.

“As governor, you run on ideas. If the voters, the owners of the government, say you’re in there, then you have that mandate from the people,” said Allen, who won his race for that office on the issues of abolishing parole, reforming welfare and setting tougher academic standards for public schools. He lost his Senate re-election bid to Democrat Jim Webb last month by 9,329 votes out of nearly 2.4 million cast.

Allen, when asked if he would look at running again for governor, replied, “Maybe down a few years I’ll decide if I’m going to get involved again, and it’s nice that people will encourage that.”

He plans to decide on a new job in January. “I’m thinking of all the different opportunities. Many, but not all, would allow me to be in Virginia and mostly in Northern Virginia, although there’s others.”

In a more distant future - and not in 2008 - Allen said he would not rule out a bid for president.

“What happens way off in the future will be determined when you get closer to that way-off-in-the-future time,” he said. “That’s my answer [about any future bid for the White House]. There is no reason to speculate on any office that I may or may not run for. I don’t foresee it. I know what I’m focused on right now, and that’s doing this job here [in the Senate] … so I’m not looking at it one way or the other.”

Many people have said that Allen’s loss this year ended his chances to seek the White House, but reminded of that, Allen added, “There are people who are presently saying I ought to be running for president in 2008. It’s all very nice and encouraging. Suffice it to say, I’m not running for president in 2008.”

Allen said the war in Iraq was a major issue in the race he narrowly lost Nov. 7 to Webb. He declined to comment on Webb’s refusal to tell President Bush how the senator-elect’s Marine Corps son was doing in Iraq when Bush approached Webb at a White House reception and asked, “How’s your boy?”

“I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb has said he responded. He said Bush then replied, “That’s not what I asked you. How’s your boy?” Webb said he told Bush, “That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President.”

Allen said of the mid-November incident, “I’m not going to comment. All I know is hearsay. I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it, so I’m not going to comment on hearsay.”

Allen said he went to a White House Christmas party on Dec. 4 and gave Bush a game football from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ win over the Cincinnati Bengals, which Bush attended in Tampa. Allen’s younger brother, Bruce, is general manager of the Tampa Bay NFL team.

As he spoke of his future plans, Allen reached over on his desk and grabbed a football given to him by James Madison University’s coach.

The senator said he would not have voted next year to renew the federal No Child Left Behind Act setting minimum education mandates “unless Virginia is not hampered by these bureaucratic requirements that are requiring us to dumb down our standards to comply with the federal bureaucracy.”

“The principle concern I have is that what we are doing in Virginia is working - not just on our tests but nationally, and the federal No Child Left Behind, the way it’s being administered, implemented … it’s causing us to dumb down our standards,” Allen said. “Out of all [my] legacies that have the greatest impact, to have the federal government actually be a harm to [Virginia’s tougher academic standards], their goal is the same but the way it’s being handled [is] not with appropriate deference to Virginia.”

Allen said he will fondly remember the friendships he made in the Senate but not everything about the institution, including “the lack of punctuality.”

“I will run my life with much more punctuality and predictability,” he said. “The Senate does not run on time. When you’re governor, there’s punctuality.”" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, December 9, 2006)

Editor's Note: An index to coverage of George Allen on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2006/Aug/925.html