Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992 TAG: 9201290188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
ROANOKE NATIVE ENDORSED FOR CORPORATION COMMISSION
A Richmond lawyer with ties to Virginia's largest industries - but who also has spent nearly two decades fighting utility rate increases - is headed for a seat on the State Corporation Commission.Hullihen W. Moore, a Roanoke native, won the endorsement Tuesday of House of Delegates Democrats. The victory was a surprise because the party's two top House leaders, Speaker Thomas Moss of Norfolk and Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Vinton, had favorite candidates who were passed over.
With the backing of House Democrats, Moore's election is assured. He won the Senate Democratic endorsement Monday.
The Democratic majorities in both chambers, bound by the secret ballot caucus votes, will elect Moore to replace Thomas Harwood, who retires this week after 20 years on the commission.
Moss was supporting C. William Cramme III, deputy director of the Department of Legislative Services. Until the caucus vote Tuesday, Cramme was expected to win the House nod.
Cranwell was expected to push former state Sen. Dudley "Buzz" Emick of Fincastle, but Emick was not nominated during the caucus.
Cranwell said he and Emick had decided to leave the former senator unnominated, expecting Cramme to win the House endorsement.
"I thought then we might be able to get both houses to turn to Buzz as a compromise candidate," Cranwell said.
Moore, 49, has spent 20 years practicing before the SCC on behalf of a big-business group working to keep down industrial and commercial utility rates.
"There isn't a major rate case before the SCC since 1972 that Hully Moore hasn't been involved in," said Del. W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., D-Warsaw, who nominated Moore in the caucus. Murphy said Moore has written and lectured extensively on utility law and as a "loyal supporter of the Democratic Party."
Moore was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
The three-member commission sets utility rates and regulates industries including insurance, banking, securities, railroads and trucking.
Lobbyists for Virginia Power - crowded around the hallway outside the committee room where the Democrats met Tuesday - were obviously dismayed at Moore's election, but they declined to say anything about their longtime adversary.