Nunzio Martin

This story was updated Feb. 7 to reflect the new districts for the state legislature adopted Friday by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission.

CRANBERRY TWP — Nunzio Martin, a volunteer with the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company, who unsuccessfully ran a write-in campaign for the Seneca Valley School District’s board of directors, announced he will run for the state House of Representatives.

Martin said he will run for the District 12 seat, currently occupied by Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, in light of the incumbent’s planned retirement in the fall.

“I’ve always prided myself on giving back to the community, and when I saw Daryl Metcalfe is going to step down — he’s a very conservative person, I like that and I just wanted to keep that going,” Martin said in an interview.

The volunteer firefighter, who works full-time as a database administrator for a health care organization, said he has no aspirations of higher office. Instead, he said, he has specific goals in mind.

Martin wants to focus on “keeping the constitutional government (and) stopping overstepping of government, of forcing people to do things. I’m not looking to make a career of this,” he said. “People always seem to get in and try to go for something higher. I’m just doing this for the community.”

He also cited specific examples of ways in which he wants to keep a check on government.

Martin wants to focus on “just giving families the control over their child’s education,” he said. “That’s obviously why I ran for school board.”

Unlike other candidates who have already announced they will run for other positions in the state House — Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo, who previously announced he would run for a now nonexistent new District 8, and Zelienople Councilman Gregg Semel, another District 12 candidate, for instance — Martin doesn’t have any formal political experience.

Martin said he plans to overcome that disadvantage by working with experienced people.

“I’m going to poll some people and, hopefully, get some backers, obviously someone who is familiar with all of the logistics of the campaign,” Martin said.

At the moment, Martin said he’s keeping the campaign “small” and focusing mainly on word-of-mouth campaigning.

“I think that’s the best way I can do it,” he said. “I haven’t done any commercials or anything like that, but I have thrown out Facebook messages, started a page for it on Facebook. I’m trying to do it organically.”

District 12 currently consists of Adams, Clinton, Cranberry, Forward, Middlesex and Penn townships, as well as Callery, Mars, Seven Fields and Valencia. If the newly-adopted redistricting map goes into effect, the geographic size would shrink to include just Adams, Cranberry and Jackson townships, plus the boroughs of Callery, Evans City, Harmony, Mars, Seven Fields, Valencia and Evans City.