I met Marty (on the left) with his campaign manager Jeremiah Levine at Tim Kaine's big bash in Richmond, where this picture was taken , and then decided I would attend his lunch with Mark Warner in Leesburg this past Thursday. In this diary I will tell you a little about the Leesburg event and about Marty.At the event in Leesburg, Marty was there to greet his guests as they began to arrive. Among the first were a clergyman and a clergywoman, respectively the president and vice-president of the local chapter of the NAACP. There were people who were retired military officers, long-time Democratic activitist, and people who knew him from his participation in the life of his community. During his remarks he talked about education, and noted that he has two daughters at Virginia Tech and a son going to Radford in the Fall. He stressed his belief that everyone should have the opportunity for education from Pre-K through college.
Marty introduced our former governor, Mark Warner, who agreed to do this event on very short notice because of his high regard for Marty. 
Before, when circulating among the guests, Warner showed his characteristic self-deprecating humor when a certain blogger who shall remain unidentified (hah) pulled out the admission ticket to the infamous party at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas during last year's Yearlykos Convention. Warner also made clear that his public service is NOT finished, although he has made no decision on how he will next serve.
There was lots of enthusiasm for Warner, who during his remarks clearly had the strong support of people in attendance. Warner acknowledged this by reiterating that he still wants to be involved in public service, and that people had been willing to help him before, adding that he hoped were he to come back and ask again for their support they would help him. He got a rousing round of support. Warner said that he was proud to be there with Marty, and that "This is a campaign that is very winnable."
There was an extensive Q&A, but I am not going to go through the details. One point worth noting is that Warner made clear that he did not think he had done enough as Governor to make sure that Virginia took a leadership role in environmental issues. He noted that some of the leading research on carbon sequestration is being done at Virginia Tech, and that moving to clean fuel can not only benefit the environment but can also drive the economy with new jobs.
Marty Martinez will clearly do well in Leesburg. He is not likely to bash his opponent, whom he called a nice person with whom he disagrees on the issues. It is not clear to me yet what will be the focus of the campaign. The district is of course much larger the Leesburg, and Marty has some work to do to introduce himself to the electorate. His campaign manager, Jeremiah Levine, has run a Congressional campaign in Washington State, but is new to Virginia. Marty has previously worked in sales, so he has some experience in communication, although what he will be asked to do in this race is going require him to be somewhat different than he has in the past while still not losing his gregariousness, his genuine warmth which really connects with people. The Democratic caucus in the House was interested enough in this race to pay the entire cost of a baseline poll - I wish I could tell you the result s of that poll,because I understand it was very encouraging.
If you live in or near Loudoun County, especially Leesburg, and are interested in participating in a campaign where you can make a difference, perhaps you ought to consider supporting Marty.
I am hoping to get him here to RaisingKaine in the near future for a liveblog. He is a very bright man with a track record of service to the community. He would be an excellent addition to the House of Delegates
Peace.
A straightforward question. Here is the straightforward answer.
Marty will stand up to Dominion Power to preserve our environment. May has not.
Marty will stand up to developers to make growth smarter. May has not.
Marty will empower localities to deal with traffic. May has not.
Marty will more fully fund education. May has not.
Standing up to Dominion Power: Joe May has failed at keeping Dominion Power from planning massive new lines in his district. Martinez has succeeded at keeping Dominion out of his town. This may be related to the fact that Joe May has enjoyed over $10,000 dollars from Dominion Power. What does that mean: with May at the helm, no one will stand up to Dominion and fight the environmental destruction of Dominion?s proposed massive new power lines. Martinez will work with Dominion to put new lines underground wherever possible, protecting our environment.
Standing up to developers: with the Joe May status quo, out of control development has splattered sprawl across Loudoun County, and it is encroaching on Clarke as well. Marty will work to give localities greater power to negotiate with developers. That way, counties and towns can say to a developer, ?yes, you can build here, if you help us make traffic better,? or, ?you can build there, but only if you help with school-crowding.? By standing up to developers, Marty will work to ease traffic and improve education.
Education: Joe May voted against raising teacher pay. At the same time, teachers are leaving our district because they can?t afford to live here. Marty will work to retain quality teachers and ease school-crowding to improve our education.