There might be some satisfaction among Democrats in seeing Donald Trump facing jail time. But it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for their party, one local elder statesman believes.
“If you are being politically strategic, you don’t want him convicted,” former U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th) said during a community roundtable at the April 25 Kiwanis Club of South Arlington gathering.
Moran, who spent nearly a quarter-century in Congress before retiring in 2014, suggested a conviction might not play well with the broader public, and in any event, “Trump’s base isn’t moving” regardless of his legal troubles.
Moran has watched as his party has tacked left (“We can’t get out of our way on some issues,” he lamented), and said that to win in November, the party’s standard-bearer needs to pick up his game and start providing inspiration.
“Joe Biden is going to have to maximize his vote,” and currently, “he’s not,” said Moran, who served as mayor of Alexandria before he won election to Congress in 1990 in the 8th District, which includes all of Alexandria, Arlington and Falls Church and a portion of Fairfax County.
He steered clear of making predictions about the eventual outcome in November, but sounded a warning on the current state of his party’s fortunes.
“If the presidential election were held today, Donald Trump would be elected,” Moran said, predicting third-party candidates could pull about 12 percent of the vote in November.
He did forecast the 2025 composition of Congress, opining the expectation that Democrats would win the House of Representatives and Republicans probably would end up in control of the Senate.
Though still in the political game (Moran perates a consulting firm with clients far and wide), his decade away from elected office had led to charitable assessments of his tenure even from those on the other side of the political divide.
Scott McGeary, a former Arlington County Republican Committee chairman who was at the event, said Moran was deserving of accolades for “a lifetime of service” to the local area.
And after the discussion moved from politics into issues involving local youth (young people are “feeling despondent, stressed out, isolated,” Moran noted), former Democratic Arlington County Board member Jay Fisette had a request.
“Can we get you to run for School Board?” he asked Moran.
The query no doubt was rhetorical, but Moran firmly put the kibosh on any possible return to elected office, School Board or higher. As for his 8th District successor, Don Beyer, “I can only say wonderful things,” Moran said.
