With incumbent Democrat Jim Webb now officially out of Virginia’s senate race, a new waiting game is beginning. Dominion Democrats need to figure out who among them will run for the Democratic nomination, and they have a lot of potential options.

But while the Democratic primary is taking shape, a Republican one is already going on. Well, sorta. Former senator and governor George Allen has announced he’s running to reclaim his old seat, while Tea Party activist (and former Allen staffer) Jamie Radtke has announced her candidacy. Others (including Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart and Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William) could soon join them. For now, though, Virginians looking for some statewide political bloodsport will have to sate themselves with Radtke’s attacks on her former boss. (Allen, acting like the frontrunner he is, hasn’t deigned to respond.)

Webb’s decision not to run for re-election gave Radtke a reason to launch this gem at Allen:

Twelve years ago George Allen ran for U.S. Senate pledging to work for a balanced budget, to reduce spending and to reduce the debt. Then Mr. Allen went to Washington and voted for spending measures that increased our national debt by $3.1 trillion and voted for $90 billion in earmarks. Now, 12 years later, George Allen is making the same promises again.

Allen’s rhetoric has remained consistently opposed to big government spending. Did he really have a big-spending record in the Senate? Did he vote “for spending measures that increased our national debt by $3.1 trillion” and “for $90 billion in earmarks?”

Let’s look at the debt first. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, on the day Allen was sworn in -- January 3, 2001 -- the debt stood at a little more than $5.7 trillion. Six years later, on his last day in his office -- January 2, 2007 -- the debt was close to $8.7 trillion. That’s a little less than $3 trillion, not $3.1 trillion, but the amount is close enough for our purposes.

As for the "spending measures" that drove up that debt, a late 2006 report from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities identified two rounds of tax cuts proposed by then-President George W. Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the major drivers of the debt increase during the 2001-2006 time period. (Whether the tax cuts count as “spending measures” is a different debate for a different day.) Conservative groups would point to the Medicare Part D expansion, which gave new prescription drug benefits to seniors, as another major driver of the debt.

On these five votes -- the Afghanistan War, Medicare Part D, the Iraq War, and the two tax cuts -- Allen voted yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.

As for the earmarks, we asked a Radtke spokesman to provide backup, and he pointed us to data from the Citizens Against Government Waste, a group that has long fought against and tracked earmarks. From 2002 to 2006, there were a total of $121 billion in earmarks included in federal appropriations. (Radtke's spokesman said they reduced the total amount to make sure the number was accurate.) Allen voted for all of the appropriations bills during that time frame except for the 2005 Homeland Security appropriations bill.

Subtracting the $1.7 billion in earmarks included in the 2005 Homeland Security appropriations bill from the total, that’s about $119 billion in earmarks.

That doesn’t mean Allen was always supported the earmarks. Most of the bills were passed by overwhelming margins. The closest vote one passed by was 54-39. Many others passed with margins like 98-0. And the Senate doesn’t hold an up-or-down vote on every earmark.

“A lot of fiscally conservative members of Congress end up voting for the appropriations bills” even if they don’t support earmarking, said Leslie Paige, the media director from Citizens against Government Waste, later adding that earmarks are a “tiny” percentage of appropriations legislation. The appropriations bills provide the backbone of the federal operating budget and keep worthwhile programs running.

Still, a yes vote is a yes vote. Allen voted for the major policies that drove up debt during the Bush years and he voted for appropriations bills containing more than $90 billion in earmarks. Radtke gets off to a good start and earns an Honest Abe.