Allen and Webb Each Pick Up Endorsements

By Tyler Whitley
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Anti-tax groups back incumbent, whose ad slams rival's tax stance

U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., eager to do battle with his Democratic opponent over tax policy, picked up the support of several anti-tax groups yesterday.

His Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, was endorsed by the Richmond Crusade for Voters, an African-American voter-mobilization organization.

Allen began running a television ad saying Webb "will bring back the death tax, the marriage-penalty tax and cut the child tax credit from $1,000 to $500."

Webb said this claim is based on trumped up evidence.

"What they have done in those ads is taken in a statement or statements I made in a general way, saying the extensions of the Bush tax cut should be looked at, and apply them to every single tax," Webb said Tuesday. He added: "What I've always said over and over again is I would be opposed to raising taxes in any of the situations that affect the broad swath of America."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee countered with a TV ad that suggested it is Allen who is the tax raiser. Allen said his long record of voting for tax cuts belies that. Bills cited by the DSCC were parts of other bills, he said.

The Webb campaign called the Allen ad "a lie." The Allen campaign stood behind its commercial, pointing to general statements Webb has made about taxes.

In the League of Women Voters debate Monday, Webb said, "You can't keep spending like this without increasing revenues."

In an interview on the political blog "MyDD," Webb questioned tax cuts when the nation has to pay for a costly war.

"The tax cuts that come up for renewal in'08, I would want to take a very hard look at that."

The marriage penalty, estate tax and child tax credit cuts expire in 2010 unless extended.

Elaborating later, Webb said he supports extending the child tax credit and the marriage penalty relief. He would increase the estate tax exemption to $5 million.

But he said he would look at closing corporate tax loopholes.

At a news conference in Richmond yesterday, Allen was supported by the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Tax Limitation Committee and the American Family Business Institute, all because of his opposition to the estate tax.

The tax limitation committee gave Allen its "Tax Fighter Award."

More than 38,000 Virginia families have enough assets to be liable for the estate tax if it is restored in 2011, said Dick Patten, president of the institute. The General Assembly repealed the state estate tax this year, effective in 2008.

Robert Holsworth, political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University, said Allen is on more comfortable turf talking against taxes. He expected Allen and fellow Republicans to try to tie Democrats, including Webb, to tax increases.

He said Webb might have left Allen an opening by espousing a message of economic populism during the Monday debate.

"He sounded more like [former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards] than [former Virginia Gov.] Mark Warner," Holsworth said.

Endorsing Webb, the Crusade for Voters' president, Melvin Law, said, "We tend to endorse people we believe represent progress and represent inclusiveness."

Allen deserves a grade of "F" in those areas, he said.

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