Scott Martin Hopes to Turn Community Involvement Into Senate Seat

GMU Professor Scott Martin of Clifton, a Republican, began his quest for Virginia’s 39th District state Senate seat more than a year ago.

Hoping to unseat incumbent Democrat George Barker, Martin is now fighting off a challenge from fellow Republican and Clifton neighbor Miller Baker. The two will meet in an August 23 primary before one of them continues on in a campaign against Barker.

“I began laying the groundwork in 2009,” said Martin, in an interview at his campaign office, where a staff was busily manning phones and laptops surrounded by maps of Virginia's  39th Senate District.

Martin is no stranger to campaigns. He ran for Fairfax County School Board but lost. “It was eye-opening,” he said. He was prompted to run after attending PTA meetings where teachers seemed to be begging for supplies. “We’re in one of the wealthiest counties. How come there’s no money?” he asked.

“I think a lot of it has to do with priorities,” and the way the current school board is set up, he said. He said he thinks the Board of Supervisors should handle the school budget instead of the school board and let the board concentrate on students and learning.

The county and the schools duplicate too many departments that should be merged and could save millions of dollars by doing so, he added. Martin also noted that the school system doesn’t need its own full-time air-conditioning maintenance staff making $50,000 to $60,000 each. “What do they do during the winter? That can be outsourced,” he said.

Martin said his priorities include:

• Supporting small businesses
• Education
• Making Virginia the most-friendly state to veterans in the country

“There’s a 13 percent unemployment rate among our veterans in Virginia,” he said. The veterans he’s spoken to in the 39th District, he said, feel disconnected from the VA. “No one knows where to find anything” such as information on financial or health services.

It’s understandable that Martin would feel an affinity for veterans. He was raised the youngest of six children in Dumfries and Woodbridge by his mother, a “lady Marine” and former drill sergeant at Parris Island and a father who was a sergeant major in the Army when he retired.

When he told a group of Koreans at the annual Korean festival in Annandale about his father’s experience fighting in the Korean War, “they all bowed down to me,” he said. “I told them 'Get up, get up!' They said the honor of the father is passed to the son. They had a lot of questions about his service.”

Martin echoed a sentiment his primary challenger Miller Baker has also made as a key point in the race: That the state’s universities are spending too much money on administrative positions. “How many associate provosts do you need?” Martin said. “They’re walled compounds. They don’t want you to know how it works.”

As a tenured associate professor at GMU, Martin said he knows how the system works. Martin is assistant dean of Technology, Research, and Institutional Advancement at George Mason University, and is also director and founder of the Computer Game Design Program, Mason’s fastest-growing academic program. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory/Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park.

As an employee at a public university, Martin touts the fact that as a paid employee of the state of Virginia, he won’t be accepting a salary for his work as a state Senator. “You can’t work over 100 percent. I’ll take leave without pay. I’ll be a volunteer.”

Another item on his checklist: Traffic and roadways. He said he'd like to see VDOT outsource some of its work and do a better job of prioritizing projects. "Clifton Road is a mess each day between 5 and 6:30 p.m."

An innovative idea Martin said he's seen working in Texas that he'd like to see replicated in Virginia: Helping men and women just out of prison start their own businesses with help from seminars taught by volunteers in MBA programs. Martin said it will help former prisoners get jobs and keep them from returning to a life of crime since it's difficult for them to find jobs going the traditional route.

Martin and Vera, his wife of 24 years, are parents of three boys, and Martin has been active in his community including volunteering at Clifton Elementary (and trying to help save the school before it was closed), coaching SYA T-Ball, Fairfax Little League T-Ball and Baseball, SYA Football, the Manassas Young Marine Program, and volunteering at his church, Living Savior Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod). He also teaches piano, and enjoys camping, hunting and fishing with his family in his spare time.

For a list of Scott Martin’s endorsements, go to: http://www.scottmartin4senate.com/endorsements