Allen was a conservative back in the day, but that was well before the Tea Party hit the political scene like a tsunami and honed the meaning of ‘conservative’ to a sharper point. He’s already being called to account for some ‘big government’ spending votes on his record. There is a strong tea party candidate raising lots of money from what I hear ..... I don’t think a head start for Allen is going to be enough to win easily or big. Really nice guy, but unless he’s been taking boxing lessons and is willing to take the gloves off in this current political environment, I don’t think he’s tough enough for the job.
Allen was never conservative. He ran up spending and expanded the size of government (not counting the war in Iraq).