O'Brien expected to get out of state Senate race

Former state Sen. J.K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr. is expected to announce today that he's dropping out of a race for his old seat.

O'Brien was to face Scott Martin, an assistant dean at George Mason University, for the GOP nomination in the 39th District, which includes parts of Prince William and Fairfax counties.

Though the election for state Senate isn't until next year, O'Brien and Martin have announced their candidacies and have been gathering support.

Gov. Bob McDonnell even attended O'Brien's kickoff May 12 in Springfield.

Reached Thursday, O'Brien wouldn't confirm that he planned to step aside.

"No decision on that," he said.

But word of the likelihood was making its way through Prince William and Fairfax political circles Thursday afternoon.

It came after O'Brien was apparently caught on security video taking several Martin campaign fliers from the Davis General Store in Clifton.

"It's terrible," Martin said.

He and the owners of the store said O'Brien came in Sunday morning, bought gas and a newspaper, and then took the fliers.

"It's very dirty -- especially right in front of us," Betsy Crump, one of the store's owners, said Monday outside a Tea Party event at the business.

Crump said she told O'Brien that he couldn't take Martin's fliers, but he left the store with them anyway.

At the same event Monday, O'Brien said the whole issue was a "tempest in a teapot."

He said he comes to the store "all the time" and was taking free literature to gather information on his opponent.

"I have taken some of those fliers to share with my campaign," he said.

He noted the perennial political story of campaign workers stealing opponents' signs, and he pointed out that primary elections can get nasty in a way that general elections between different parties don't.

"Primaries are a family feud," he said.

But Martin and Brian Bennett, Davis' other owner, said this wasn't a typical campaign shenanigan.

Bennett disputed O'Brien's characterization of himself as a Davis regular.

"I've never seen him in here before," he said.

Martin said this situation was different because it involved the candidate himself, a "man who used to be an officer in the Army."

O'Brien's exit from the 39th District race would be big news, considering he had the governor's endorsement.

The Republicans started their careers in state government together in 1991 in the House of Delegates.

"Jay O'Brien is one of the most decent, honest and principled people I have met in public life," McDonnell is quoted as saying on O'Brien's campaign website.

Martin and O'Brien planned to challenge Sen. George L. Barker, a Democrat who defeated O'Brien by a mere 761 votes in 2007.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.