RICHMOND, Va.
Sen. George Allen of Virginia last week declined an award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund after an outcry over his selection for the honor.
Allen, a Republican seeking re-election this fall, decided to forgo the award he was to receive this week after being told donors to the fund threatened to withhold contributions if he received it.
“The foundation told the senator that they’ve been catching a lot of static from members and some of their donors, and before it spins into a week of controversy, we just decided to decline it,” said Allen’s Senate spokesman, John Reid.
Allen ascribed the reaction to political adversaries in an election year.
“I regret that there are those who would put their personal or political dislike of me ahead of the needs of deserving students and I do not want to be the cause of any controversy which could in any way harm the efforts to help these young people,” Allen said in a one-paragraph statement distributed by his Senate office.
Allen’s decision came almost three weeks after he singled out a Virginia-born college student of Indian descent to a mostly white crowd at a campaign rally and twice applied the name “Macaca” to him.
