STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
OFTEN THE UNSEEN hand behind politicians seeking to keep their campaigns on track and above board, David Martin passed away Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 52.
Martin, a Colorado native who along with his wife Gemma Martin founded the consulting firm Chick Montana Group, carved a niche for himself in Massachusetts Democratic politics by helping elected officials navigate the state’s myriad campaign finance rules.
The firm, founded and named in 2003 after Martin’s favorite “Perry Mason” villain, became a staple on campaign finance reports with the Martins managing the campaign accounts of mayors, state lawmakers and members of Congress.
His passing over the weekend elicited an outpouring of grief and remembrances from a cast of Bay State pols – from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Speaker Robert DeLeo to Congressman Joseph Kennedy and Attorney General Maura Healey – who counted him as an advisor and a friend.
“I think he thought of me as a work in progress,” U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, one of the more conservative Democrats in the delegation, joked in a statement. Lynch said that Martin recently described their friendship as “unlikely.” “He was a practicing Liberal though. He was kind and generous and tolerant and forgiving. And he had a great sense of humor. Thank God for that.”
Martin got his start in politics working for Colorado Congressman Timothy Wirth after graduating from Colorado College with a degree in political science. He then joined U.S. Sen. Gary Hart’s 1988 campaign for president. When Hart’s campaign ended, Martin moved from Iowa to Boston to work on Gov. Michael Dukakis’s White House bid.
It was on the Dukakis campaign that Martin met his wife Gemma, and the two eventually had three daughters Allison, Emily and Vivian, who Gemma Martin called his “pride and joy.”
After the Dukakis campaign, Martin worked in finance and accounting roles for state Attorney General Francis Bellotti’s 1990 campaign for governor and managed information technology in the Norfolk District Attorney’s office.
He also served as deputy campaign manager for Secretary of State John Kerry’s 1996 Senate re-election campaign against Bill Weld and held a senior finance role at MassINC, the non-partisan Boston think tank.
“David and Gemma are always calm and reassuring voices in the midst of the near daily crises every campaign experiences,” said Steve Kerrigan, the 2014 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. “More than that, they are as decent and ethical as they come – rare and phenomenally important traits in politics, government and nonprofits.”
Former Congressman William Delahunt credited Martin with modernizing the Norfolk County DA’s office during his time there, implementing a computerized case management system for the first time in the early 1990s.
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg told the News Service he started working with Martin over the past couple of years, and in that time came to regard him as a “consummate professional.”
“He was one of those very quiet forces in politics in Massachusetts because he kept all of us on the right side of the rules and he was just a master at that and he will be missed by a lot people. Just a genuinely good, hard-working, smart professional,” Rosenberg said.
DeLeo also remembered Martin, who served as the speaker’s long-time campaign treasurer, as both a stickler for the rules and a “family man.”
“What I like about David is that you always knew the information that you got was good information, and I can tell you in my role that’s most important to me to make sure that we comply with every rule, regulation and law and David always made sure we did,” DeLeo said.
As DeLeo got to know Martin on a personal level as well, the speaker said, “You got to see how much of a family man he was and his love for his wife and daughters which was another side of David that some people might have missed.”