As you may have already heard, today Brian created a new political action committee – Virginians for Brian Moran – to help him explore a run for Governor in 2009. He will not be making any formal announcement until after the General Assembly session but this committee will allow him to organize and prepare for a campaign. Brian’s excited that former Warner Political Director, Mame Reiley, will be joining staff as Director of the new PAC and former Warner and Webb campaign manager, Steve Jarding, will join as General Consultant.

Bob Lewis with the Associated Press reported today that,

Brian J. Moran, a senior House Democrat, will establish a committee Friday from which he will launch a 2009 race for governor, advisers to Moran said Thursday.

Moran will file papers with the State Board of Elections to create a political action committee, Virginians for Brian Moran, said Mame Reiley, who will direct the PAC.

Moran will do nothing more Friday than file the paperwork that allows him to begin raising money and supporting other candidates, said Reiley, a veteran adviser to former Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner. After the 2008 General Session, Moran will establish a campaign committee and formally declare his candidacy.

Moran hired Steve Jarding to advise his PAC. Jarding was the chief strategist for Warner’s campaign for governor in 2001 and Jim Webb’s surprise victory over Republican Sen. George Allen in 2006.

Jarding, who is advising Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson’s re-election campaign in South Dakota this year, said Moran has some of the same political assets as Warner and Webb: a base in their northern Virginia home region, the state’s most populous, and viability downstate.

“This is somebody who can sell and do well statewide,” said Jarding, whose specialty is making Democrats competitive in rural areas where Republicans often prevail.

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