Jonathan Martin

Just as Dick Cheney had “a fever” for launching the Iraq war (or so Colin Powell told Bob Woodward), Jonathan Martin has had “a fever” for politics, government, public affairs and history from an early age. Martin grew up in a family that took subscriptions to all three weekly news magazines and he was subjected to a vacation diet of battlefields, museums and other landmarks of historic note. Thus imbued with a deep curiosity about The American Experience — not to mention a working knowledge of every significant National Park Service-run property along the eastern seaboard — he initially pursued a career in politics and government.Dissatisfied with the ideological and professional constraints of such work, Martin’s passion for the “how and the why” naturally led him to a track where he could write, report and think about his passions (some may say obsessions).

Martin comes to Politico from National Review, where he wrote about politics for the magazine and the Web site. Prior to that, he worked for The Hotline covering topics ranging from gubernatorial contests to congressional leadership battles. He writes a blog about the candidates for the 2008 Republican nomination for Politico. A Virginian, Martin is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College.

In his free time, Martin enjoys C-SPAN, thumbing through random sections of What It Takes, reading profiles of obscure House members inThe Almanac of American Politics and devouring regional American cuisine.

Martin will cover the 2008 presidential campaign for Politico, and hopes to record and explain this history with the same zeal that led his parents to intersperse his Berenstein Bears volumes with biographies of Kit Carson and William Henry Harrison.