Tom Garrett is about to change jobs. In January when the General Assembly is sworn in, he will become Sen. Garrett.

Garrett, who has gained a reputation of being a tough prosecutor as Commonwealth Attorney for Louisa County, has a light-hearted approach to the move.

“I’m taking a cut in salary and some say a lesser job title,” he said Dec. 5. “It’s what I want.  I’m anxious to serve the people of the 22nd district.”

Garrett is proud of his Louisa County roots and sometime uses his home-spun humor to give the impression he is just a “good old country boy.”  Don’t let him fool you. Garrett might well become a force to deal with in the General Assembly. He knows how to play the game.

“I’m going to be one of the nickie-new-kids in January,” he said. “There are 40 senators and I believe I rank number 39. I hope when I get there to associate myself with Delegates and Senators that know what they are doing who I can learn from.”

Garrett is already making the rounds in the district, talking to people to get a better feel for what’s important to them.

“I’ll sleep in my own bed tonight, and that will be the first time in four nights,” he said. “I’ll probably get up about 4:30 in the morning because I have a breakfast meeting in Lynchburg.”

When Garrett is talking to constituents, he often uses what he calls his “kitchen table” approach to money matters.

“When spending taxpayers’ money, we need to make sure we are spending it on things we need and not things we want,” he said, “With the economy like it is, we need to be very careful about what we appropriate money for.”

Transportation and roads were talked about. Garrett was asked if he would support Gov. Bob McDonnell’s idea to put tolls back on Interstate 95?

“I don’t have a view on tolls at this time,” he responded. “I’ll tell you what I’ll never vote for though and that would be to increase the gas tax. There are a lot of people in the 22nd district and all over the state who drive 30, 40, maybe even 50 miles or more a day to go to and from work. I’ll never vote to increase the gas tax because it touches almost every person in the state.”

When Garrett was running for his seat, he favored drug testing for welfare recipients, pro-life, and cutting or eliminating the state’s corporate income tax.

“Those were issues I campaigned on and they are issues I will work on when I’m in office,” he said. “I’m not going to try and do too much the first time initially. I want to learn as much as I can.”

As for committee assignments, Garrett said because of his judicial background that he might receive assignments in that area.

And then there is the opinion of two of his younger constituents about him being a senator.

“My daughters are 12 and 10 years old,” Garrett said with a smile. “They think it’s kind of neat that daddy is going to be a State Senator. They are happy for me.”

And what about 20 years from now if one of his daughters came to him and said she wanted to run for public office?

“You know, parents have to cut the strings sometime,” he responded. “If one of them decided to run for public office, it would be her decision and I’d support her.”

For now, Garrett’s thirst for knowledge about what his constituents think and how to do his new job the right way, will undoubtedly lead to more nights sleeping in beds away from home.