BY WESLEY P. HESTER

Add another to the growing list of Republican candidates in next year’s lieutenant governor’s race.

Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, is the latest to throw his hat in the ring, joining Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, and Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

“Yes, I intend to run,” he said, adding that he is the process of meeting the requirements to officially declare his candidacy, adding that news of entry “is being received extraordinarily well.”

Martin added: “I assumed we might have a stronger field than we have, and I just feel like we didn’t have the candidate we needed to have.”    

Martin, 56, who announced his inent to run Wednesday, and Lingamfelter both jumped into the race after the Republican Party of Virginia’s State Central Committee voted last week to switch the nominating process for the 2013 statewide slate from a primary to a convention.

Conventions are generally less costly for candidates than statewide primaries.

Martin has served in the state senate since 1994, serving in the House of Delegates before that.

Pete Snyder, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia’s Victory 2012 effort, has also expressed interest in running. Aneesh Chopra, the former White House chief technology officer, is expected to seek the Democratic nomination.