RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Brian J. Moran, a senior House Democrat, will file papers Friday to launch a campaign for governor in 2009, advisers to Moran said Thursday.

Moran will formally establish a political action committee, Virginians for Brian Moran, with the State Board of Elections, said Mame Reiley, who will direct the PAC.

Moran, 48, of Alexandria, becomes the second Democrat to publicly state his intent to run for governor. State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds announced the formation of his campaign with a video on his new campaign Web site last month.

Together, it marks the earliest official start of a campaign for governor in Virginia. The election is still 22 months away. No Republican has publicly announced plans yet.

Reiley said Moran will do nothing more than file the paperwork on Friday because his focus is on the 2008 General Assembly session, which begins Wednesday. A formal campaign kickoff will come after the legislature adjourns, probably in the spring, said Reiley, a veteran adviser to Democratic former Gov. Mark R. Warner.

Moran, the younger brother of U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., is chairman of the minority Democratic Party caucus in the House of Delegates and raised nearly $320,000 for Democrats in November's House races. Democrats gained four seats in the elections and now control 44 of the 100 House seats.

Moran has also hired as a campaign consultant Steve Jarding, who guided Warner's campaign for governor in 2001 and Jim Webb's surprise victory over Republican Sen. George Allen in 2006.

Jarding, a strategist for the re-election campaign of Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said Moran brings many of the same assets to the race that northern Virginians Warner and Webb did: a base in the state's most populous region and viability downstate.

"This is somebody who can sell and do well statewide," said Jarding, known within his party for his specialty of making Democrats competitive in rural areas where Republicans often prevail.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)