State Sen. George Barker (D-39th) kicked off his Prince William County campaign Sunday stressing the idea that his seat may be the most competitive in the commonwealth as well as one of the most targeted local offices in the entire country this year.

"The focus of the Republican Party is the state Senate of Virginia," said Barker, who represents county precincts in eastern Manassas as well as other parts of both Prince William and Fairfax counties. Four Republicans are competing in the GOP primary to take on Barker in the general election. Barker so far does not face any Democratic opposition.

Barker, speaking to about 45 Democratic supporters at a waterfront home in Lake Ridge, emphasized bipartisanship while also taking shots at unspecified legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House of Delegates, which he deemed "horrible" and blocked by the Democrats in the state Senate.

He said at one point that he was one of only two senators this year to sponsor 20 bills that were passed into law. A review of Barker's record shows that his numbers check out.

Barker introduced 41 bills to the General Assembly this year and 18 of them passed via the usual legislative route. One of his bills was incorporated into another, larger bill and that passed. One other one has passed the House and Senate but the governor has yet to sign into law, instead making recommendations that the Senate can still act upon.

During an interview after his speech, Barker discussed working with Manassas Del. Bob Marshall (R-50th) to pass a law that requires life insurance companies to write out all of the options beneficiaries can choose to receive instead of trying to simply convince them into taking certain deals. Certain companies abused for profit, he said.

Though mentioning that Marshall is extremely conservative, the Democrat Barker called Marshall a "very smart individual" who "doesn't have the ego" that might normally be attributed to partisan legislators.

"It's not about him," Barker said of Marshall's mentality.

Teaming up with Republicans became crucial to achieving legislative success, even though Democrats control the majority in the Senate. For instance, Barker's bill that expanded the incentives from the Governor's Development Opportunity Fund designed to lure companies to Virginia ended up being incorporated into the bill of Southside state Sen. William Stanley (R-19th).

Stanley's bill passed both chambers without any dissenting votes and was signed into law by the governor.

Barker said that law is designed to help places like Prince William County attract big, high-tech corporations to areas such as Innovation Park instead of losing bidding wars to North Carolina, which he noted happened with both Facebook and Google.

"We've gotten the CEOs of those (companies) out here," Barker said, mentioning how Northern Virginia attracts company headquarters.

Now, he said the focus is to get the actual designers and manufacturers of those same companies.

Meanwhile, other companies with at least 50 employees that is rewarded with a contract of at least $50,000 from the state government will have to use the federal E-Verify program to make sure all of their employees are in the country legally due to a law sponsored by Barker that passed this year.

The expanded E-Verify law turned out to be a compromise of sorts, Barker explained, in that he wanted all contractors to abide by it. However, he said, after years of wrangling with the business sector, they finally agreed to support Barker's legislation as long as it exempted some smaller businesses with less than 50 employees.

Barker said he agreed on the principle that the legislature can later review and update the law once proving the system actually works. The business groups he worked with signed on, he said. The Senate passed the final conference report unanimously and only six House Democrats objected while 86 total delegates approved.

The stakes

Barker defeated incumbent state Sen. Jay O'Brien (R) by 761 votes in 2007 out of over 39,000 votes cast. That margin proved to not only the fifth closest of the 40 state Senate races that year but it ultimately determined partisan control of the upper chamber too. Democrats emerged from Election Day with a 21-19 majority after flipping four Republican-held seats.

After Democrat Dave Marsden won a special election in 2010 to fill the state Senate seat vacated by state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) following his 2009 election to statewide office, the Democratic majority expanded to its current tally of 22 to 18.

Republicans only need to flip two Democratic state Senate seats this November to take back control assuming the party does not lose any of its own seats because Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) would break a 20-20 tie.

That is where redistricting comes into play as one of the maps drawn by Democrats would force two downstate Republican state senators to compete with each other. The majority Republicans in the House of Delegates are doing the exact opposite, drawing some Democratic incumbents into districts with other Democratic delegates.

Essentially, those crafting the maps have drawn what is commonly referred to as "incumbent projection plans," where the majority party makes sure districts are gerrymandered in a manner that protects its own members while diluting support for members of the opposite party in swing districts.

A verbal agreement reached by leaders from each chamber essentially states that the House will not tamper with the Senate's plan and vice versa. Minority members of both chambers have protested so far but, in reality, that means little as there are no filibuster options in either the House or Senate; the majority rules.

Barker's seat is particularly crucial for Democrats to hold because Republicans are already favored to win two open state Senate seats in western Prince William County due to a lack of a strong Democratic bench.

For one, state Sen. Chuck Colgan (D-29th), the president pro tempore of the Senate, is set to retire. He is the only Democrat that district residents usually elect to any office as Republicans are dominant in the 29th. Manassas Del. Jackson Miller (R-50th) has been planning for months to run for the seat but said he would wait until after redistricting to make the official go-ahead.

Also, the new open seat for the 22nd district is planned for parts of western Prince William that would also include parts of Fauquier, Loudoun and Clarke counties. Three-time state Senate candidate Bob FitzSimmonds (R) of Bristow is set to run for that district after initially declaring for the 29th district.

According to an e-mail from his campaign, the 22nd district is likely to include parts of or all of 15 precincts in Bristow, Gainesville and Haymarket.

Barker said because there are so few elections across the country right now, especially ones that are competitive, flipping Democratically-controlled chamber in a federal swing state like Virginia is a big focus of national Republicans.

"They're going to have a lot of national money that they're going to throw at" this race, he said.

The only way for his campaign to respond is to increase fundraising, volunteering and turnout, Barker added.

"We're going to to have to fight to make sure we do that," he said.