Del. Joe May, (R-33), isn't bothered by the fact that he is running unopposed in the general election this year. In fact, he's glad to be unchallenged.
"What I consider to be the fun of it, is actually being able to get involved in issues that are important to all of us," he said.
Many of the issues May is passionate about are nonpartisan subjects like transportation, science and technology, and higher education. Science and technology are areas where he has effected change over the past few years and he said he expects to do more for technology-driven issues in the future.
"I've taken on the technology arena as one of my challenge areas because it's a very large industry in Virginia. And because it's so new, there's little in the way of policy and guidelines for how we make use of it," he said.
For the past seven years, May has chaired the science and technology committee and currently chairs an appropriations subcommittee on commerce and technology. He also chairs the joint commission on technology and science and serves on the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission. May said that he has been involved in a substantial part of reorganizing information technology in the commonwealth.
"The state spends about a billion dollars a year on information technology. Three years ago, we sponsored legislation, which completely reorganized how information technology is utilized in the state," he said. "We are changing the way that computers and associated equipment are purchased and maintained."
He said by doing this, legislators expect to save a lot of money as well as improve the quality of service. For example, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recently got a system overhaul. May said the DMV use to generate licenses by hand and that now it's almost all computer driven. Since it was brought up-to-date, the DMV is capable of generating more licenses more accurately in shorter periods of time, reducing the number of fraudulent licenses, he said.
MAY ALSO sits on several transportation committees, the higher education committee of appropriations and the Virginia Rural Prosperity Committee.
"Transportation has reached a critical level within the commonwealth and we're finding ways to not only finance but actually implement new transportation methods here, both public and private, roads, mass transit and rail."
One related accomplishment May is proud of is having gotten the rural rustic roads policy passed. The policy, he said, now requires the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to only pave a dirt road to the level that is required to support the existing traffic.
"It used to be that if you had a dirt road, and you wanted to pave it, you had to make it a two-lane highway," he said. "This allows you to pave a single lane, which is minimally intrusive, if the traffic is not very high." May said the original policy was very unpopular statewide. "It frankly protects the rural flavor of our state and saves us money on top of it."
May said growth in the state is one of the reasons for the growth in traffic issues, but growth, he said, is not something the state can stop.
"I don't know that we have a choice in growth, but we do have a choice in how rapidly it occurs," he said. "I try to avoid being associated with either the very rapid growth or very slow growth. I think the better term is smart growth. Certainly growth that outstrips the available transportation and educational resources cannot be called smart growth." But at the state level, he said, about all they can do is provide local governments with the legislative authority they need to control their own destiny.
THIS IS the third election the Democratic Party has not put up a candidate to run against May said Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman Mark Bergman. He said the party approached several candidates and "basically no one decided to step forward."
However, May, a 12-year incumbent, did have a challenger this year. Northern Virginia attorney Chris Oprison, a conservative Republican, challenged May in a June 2005 primary, but lost. He garnered 40 percent of the vote. Earlier this year, May had run for the Republican Party nomination to run for lieutenant governor. When Oprison showed up on the scene, May decided to drop out of that race to defend his seat and he did so successfully. One contributing factor may have been the sheer amount of campaign funds May already had in his pocket from campaigning for lieutenant governor. The biggest chunk of funding — $130,000 — came from the Friends of May - Joe for Lt. Governor campaign contributions. Leadership of Virginia came in second with a $31,875 donation.
Powerstrategies of Potomac Falls donated the third largest amount of $22,500.
MAY, 68, has lived south of Leesburg with his wife, Bobby, since 1982. He was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley near Broadway, Va., where he attended Broadway High School. After a three-year boots-on-the ground enlistment in the U.S. Army, May attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. After many years in the technology industry, May founded his present business, Electronics Instrumentation and Technology (EIT), headquartered in Sterling. The company designs and manufactures electronic medical, telecommunications and scientific equipment. In 1991 and 1995, he received the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers "New Product of the Year Award" and was honored in 1996 with the Commonwealth of Virginia and Science Museum of Virginia's "Lifetime Achievement in Industry" award. In September 2000, he received the Governor's Legislative Leadership Award in Technology and a year later, he was named "Virginia Biotechnology Legislator of the Year." May is a member of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers, the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce and the Airplane Owners and Pilots Association.
The couple have two daughters, Susan May, a physicist who lives in Bloomington, Minn., and Elaine May Attridge, a medical librarian of Charlottesville. In his free time, May enjoys flying, scuba diving and auto racing.
"To summarize, I'm a businessman and a engineer by training and mind-set but I'm also an elected official and that's by choice," he said. "I guess I've always been involved in community service in one sort or another. Being a delegate is a difficult job and mostly it's quite rewarding, and occasionally it's bitterly disappointing, but it's a job that needs to be done."