Moran meets with voters in Appomattox

APPOMATTOX — In a second-floor meeting room straight out of the 1930s, Brian Moran began the final sprint of his 21st century race for Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination Saturday morning.

Before he began, however, he made sure to pay tribute to his biggest fan — a five-foot floor model that stood whirring away in a far corner of the space above Baines’ Books on Appomattox’s quaint Main Street.

“I’ll try to talk louder over the fan,” he said, “but we need it.”

The field is crowded and jostling heading for the June 9 primary, and Moran acknowledged that he still had work to do in terms of statewide name recognition. Although his tenure as Democratic caucus leader in the General Assembly has given him extensive local party contacts from Newport News to the Cumberland Gap, the average voter west of Fredericksburg isn’t likely to be familiar with a former delegate from Alexandria.

“If people know me and what I’m about and don’t support me, that’s OK,” Moran said, “but what frustrates me is when they don’t know what I’m about.”

This was the first appearance of a last-week push Moran is calling his “Fighting for Virginia Tour,” with stops later Saturday in Charlottesville, Staunton, Harrisonburg and Petersburg.

The youngest of a seven-member Massachusetts family bracketed by politicians (the oldest, Jim Moran, is a Virginia Congressman), Moran talked a lot about his blue collar roots to a small gathering of Appomattox and Campbell County Democrats. He even wore a blue shirt, albeit with a red tie.

“When my father was working, his company car was our family station wagon,” he said. “Then he got laid off, and they came and towed the car out of our driveway. I still remember that.”

He also remembers several years when milk in the Moran household meant the dried variety, mixed with water.

“That’s a taste you never forget,” he said.

While years in Virginia have muted Moran’s New England accent, there is still something slightly Kennedy-esque about him. One of his biggest personal thrills of the current campaign, he said, was participating in an event at Hickory Hill, the Northern Virginia home where Ethel and Robert Kennedy raised 11 children.

The race between Moran, Creigh Deeds and Terry McAuliffe remains quite competitive, with the poll numbers shifting weekly.

“When I was a kid, I never liked roller coasters,” Moran said, “and now I’m on one.”

Still, he declared: “I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think I was the best candidate.”

Unfortunately for Moran, who touts his close relationship with current Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner as one of his biggest plusses, the two state heavyweights have remained on the sidelines in this election.

“At least one of the candidates (former Democratic National Committee chairman McAuliffe) has a lot more money than we do,” Moran conceded. “We might be third in that category.”

His question and answer session was lively, with most of the questions pitched to his strengths on subjects like free clinics, small business, broadband coverage for rural areas and the future of Chesapeake Bay. Moran’s basic pitch is that his constant travels around the commonwealth have given him more local knowledge in more places than either of his opponents.

“I don’t have Bill Clinton’s endorsement,” he said, “but Bill Clinton isn’t who I’m going to have to work with.”