E-Mail This Article to a Friend Michael Moran Despite the coming challenge of the general election, he’s finally on his way to Beacon Hill BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN

MICHAEL MORAN SEEMED genuinely overwhelmed for a minute Tuesday night, trying to plow through his first acceptance speech — they’re emotionally quite different from concessions, it turns out. He got red-faced and nervous; he shook; he needed notes to remember whom to thank; he appeared close to tears at one point, expressing gratitude to his mentor Steven Tolman. But he blustered through the speech, and despite the coming challenge from two independents in the general election (including Dan "the Bagel Man" Kontoff, who attended Schofield’s party and took me to task for not sufficiently covering his campaign), Moran is now finally on his way to Beacon Hill.

As Moran told his supporters at the Stockyard, in Brighton, he knows what it’s like to lose by 89 votes, and now he knows what it’s like to win by 64. This is a guy who is never going to forget to fight for every vote. The way to do that, he believes, has less to do with high-profile issues, and more to do with constituent services. While he ticked off the requisite platform issues in his brief acceptance speech, he spoke mostly about the neighborhood’s support for him, and how he intends to respond to the community’s needs. "People want you to be responsive and want to know that they can call on you," he told me a little later, when I asked how he plans to represent such a diverse district.

The preface to my question was the accusation, raised by some in opposing camps, that Moran shows different faces to different constituents. He is progressive in public, they suggest, but privately assures more-conservative voters that he’s with them on social issues — a charge he denies. Regardless, it’s easy to leave multiple impressions on the campaign trail, whether deliberately or not; but once elected, a House member has to cast actual votes that must inevitably disappoint some back home.

The impressive showing by unabashed liberal Tim Schofield should ensure that Moran keeps his promises on reproductive rights, gay marriage, public education, and other issues that arose during the campaign. That’s clearly where the district’s votes are.

"I haven’t met anybody with a bigger heart," Tolman said of Moran — whom Tolman beat back in 1994.

Others at the Stockyard, munching on potato skins, chicken fingers, and Swedish meatballs, were equally confident of Moran’s sincerity and intentions. While they were not, generally speaking, as left-leaning as Schofield’s young crowd at the Kells, they were pretty strongly in agreement with Moran’s stated positions. Historically, this is a progressive district

And, apparently, an engaged one — the turnout of nearly 4000 voters was well above expectations. More than two-thirds voted for a progressive liberal. Take that, Mitt.

David S. Bernstein can be reached at dbernstein[a]phx.com