RICHMOND -- Virginia's already heated Senate race got even more intense on Tuesday when a heckler confronted Republican incumbent George Allen at a Charlottesville campaign event and was wrestled to the ground by campaign volunteers.

Mike Stark, a University of Virginia law student and Internet blogger, provoked the confrontation by asking Allen "inappropriate questions" following an Allen rally at the Charlottesville Omni hotel, Allen's campaign said. Allen was campaigning with his wife, Susan, and Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.

Television footage of the incident showed three men wearing Allen lapel stickers shoving Stark away from the senator before one of the men tackled Stark to the floor. The dramatic scene is just the latest twist in a bitter and sometimes bizarre contest between Allen and Democrat James Webb.

In a press release, Allen's campaign alleged that Stark pushed a campaign staffer while trying to get to Allen. Stark was restrained by volunteers "when he approached the Senator a second time, asking inappropriate questions," according to the press release.

In an e-mail to reporters, Stark said he was attempting to ask about Allen's divorce from his first wife, among other things. Stark said he intended to press charges against the people who tackled him.

But Stark's blog, "Calling All Wingnuts," indicates that he intended to provoke the senator at Tuesday's campaign event.

"I'm also trying to 'Roger and Me' George Allen whenever I can," Stark wrote in a Monday posting, referring to the film by controversial liberal director Michael Moore.

Internet blogs have been reservoirs of invective for supporters of both Senate candidates, but Stark may be the only one to directly assail Allen or Webb. A Webb spokeswoman said the Democrat has been confronted by hecklers, but no physical altercations ensued.

It was not the first time that Stark has confronted Allen on the campaign trail. Stark approached Allen after an August campaign event in Staunton and asked the senator if he had ever used an incendiary racial epithet to describe black people. He was ushered away by Allen aides. Stark posted the audio of the incident on his Web site.

Tuesday's episode did not stop Allen and Dole from rallying supporters in Charlottesville and Richmond. Webb campaigned in Lynchburg and Martinsville with former Gov. Mark Warner before meeting with Goodyear workers in Danville.

A poll conducted for CNN and released Tuesday showed Webb with a statistically insignificant lead over Allen. Allen held a slight lead in a poll released last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

Dole, the chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, lauded Allen's record as Virginia's governor and in the U.S. Senate while campaigning for him in Richmond. She also chided Webb for a 1979 magazine article titled "Women Can't Fight," in which Webb harshly criticized the admission of women to the U.S. Naval Academy and questioned their fitness for combat.

Webb has said he now is comfortable with the roles of women in the military. But Dole, repeating a charge made by some female Navy graduates of that era, said Webb's article contributed to a hostile climate for women at the academy.

Dole also warned that Democrats would end Republican-initiated tax relief programs if they capture control of Congress, repeating a refrain that Allen is uttering often in the closing days of the campaign.

"You're going to be paying higher taxes," Dole said. "It's going to weaken the economy, no question about it."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hit back at Allen on Tuesday, releasing a new ad depicting Allen as a philosophical clone of President Bush. Among other things, the ad noted Allen's opposition to expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research and his record of supporting Bush's prosecution of the war in Iraq.

Allen has softened his rhetoric on the war in recent weeks and aligned himself with the more skeptical view of fellow Republican John Warner, Virginia's senior senator. Allen is scheduled to campaign with Warner today in Northern Virginia.

Webb has an event this morning in front of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem and will spend the afternoon campaigning in Richmond with former Gov. Douglas Wilder, now the city's mayor.