"Millions of protesters took to the streets this year to demand amnesty for unauthorized immigrants. Congress debated immigration bills for months before approving a 700-mile border fence. In several fiercely contested political races nationwide, illegal immigration has taken center stage.

The candidates in Virginia's Senate race, meanwhile, have barely touched it.

Republican Sen. George Allen and his challenger, Democrat James Webb, have stark differences on the issue. While both call for sealing the borders, Allen brooks no sympathy for illegal immigrants and favors guest-worker plans. Webb supports legalization for some immigrants and opposes broad programs for temporary foreign labor.

Analysts say the relative absence of immigration in the race reflects the increasingly tricky proposition of campaigning on polarizing topics, especially in a traditionally conservative state with a changing political landscape. In recent elections, Northern Virginia voters' allegiance has shifted toward Democrats.

'Statewide in Virginia, I think it's a lot thornier,' said Mark J. Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University. 'With the divide . . . it's really hard to say that someone can play this issue one way and know that he's going to benefit.'

Studies show that Virginia's illegal immigrant population has swelled in recent years and that growth has been densest in Northern Virginia. Herndon voters this spring ousted Town Council members who backed a hiring site for immigrant day laborers, but Republican Jerry W. Kilgore lost the Northern Virginia suburbs -- and the governor's race -- after a campaign in which he vowed, among other things, to crack down on illegal immigrants.

In a recent Washington Post poll, 59 percent of likely Virginia voters said immigration would be important in their choice for senator -- but only after issues such as terrorism, Iraq, the economy, ethics in government, health care and taxes.

Nationally, most candidates campaigning on immigration are of the tough-on-illegal-immigration persuasion, like Allen. But Allen has battled accusations of insensitivity to minorities since the summer, when he called an Indian American campaign worker for Webb a 'macaca.'

'Immigration, like it or not, is an issue that touches on race,' said Steven A. Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors limiting immigration.

Asked about the Herndon day-labor center at a Richmond debate this month, Allen responded: 'We should not be rewarding illegal behavior because all that will do is encourage more illegal behavior.'

Parting ways with President Bush, Allen voted this session against a failed Senate bill that would have given some illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. The senator leans toward House Republicans on immigration, favoring enforcement-only approaches that aim to close the borders.

'First and foremost, Virginians want our borders secured,' said Dick Wadhams, Allen's campaign manager. He said Allen considered Congress's final border fence bill a 'good start.'

To address the question of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, Allen wants stepped-up punishment of their employers, Wadhams said. Strict enforcement, Allen reasons, will dry up the source of jobs over time. Allen backs expanded guest-worker programs that supply migrant labor to farms and skilled employees to tech companies.

That position is a key difference between Allen and Webb, who rails against corporate interests and bemoans the struggle of the middle class. He criticizes large-scale guest-worker programs, saying more oversight is needed so jobs do not go to cheaper foreign labor. Unlike Allen, Webb supports giving a path to legalization to immigrants who have been in the United States long enough to have planted deep roots.

'That in some way means sorting out people who have long ties with their community in the name of fairness and reality,' Webb said. But he added: 'I'm not for amnesty. I want to make that clear.'

Webb said the Herndon day-labor center is an acceptable way to locally manage the effects of a failed federal immigration system. On his Web site, he calls for the United States to strengthen border security above all else and to turn next to the questions of illegal immigrants and a guest-worker plan. In an interview, he did not emphasize the need for border security as strongly. And he added a fourth component: pressuring -- and helping -- Mexico to stem migration through economic development.

Webb has been endorsed by a group of Latino leaders called Adelante Con Webb, which chose Webb in part for his vision of a broad overhaul of immigration laws, said Arlington County Board member Walter Tejada (D), a member of the group.

But Tejada said the endorsement came only after Webb met with the group and justified his views on affirmative action, which he has called 'state-sponsored racism.' Now Webb says he supports it for blacks but not for other ethnic minorities, unless poor whites are included. Webb says the position is based on fairness and hews to the program's original intent.

'We really understood and realized that this man really is about opportunity,' Tejada said.

Allen earned the endorsement of the Latino Coalition, a nonpartisan advocacy group that has often backed GOP proposals and is headed by former Bush appointee Hector V. Barreto, who resigned as head of the Small Business Administration in April. Robert de Posada, the Latino Coalition's president, called Webb's affirmative action position 'extremely insulting.'

As Virginia governor, de Posada said, Allen 'opened doors for Hispanics' by appointing several Latinos, including former Virginia Transportation secretary Robert E. Martinez. That prompted the coalition, which favors legalization for illegal immigrants, to overlook Allen's immigration views." (Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post, October 21, 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