The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-27)

SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C7

BY LAURA VOZZELLA

richmond — Gov. Glenn Young-
kin (R), who took office in January
with no experience in govern-
ment, has relied heavily on a Rich-
mond insider who knows his way
around the Capitol — and works
for free.
Matthew Moran puts in long
hours as Youngkin’s director of
policy and legislative affairs, but
the only paycheck he collects is
from two political consulting
firms. He is on a paid leave of
absence from Creative Direct,
where he’s a vice president, and an
affiliate in which he has an owner-
ship interest, Link Public Affairs.
Neither firm employs regis-
tered lobbyists, but Link runs
public affairs campaigns designed
to influence legislators through
such things as TV ads and polling.
While other Virginia governors
have had unpaid advisers — and
Youngkin himself has a second
volunteer at his service — Moran’s
situation is especially unusual, be-
cause he works full time for the
administration with a state title,
but without upfront disclosure
that he’s a volunteer on someone
else’s payroll.
Critics say the arrangement
presents a conflict of interest and
creates a loophole around
V irginia’s revolving-door laws,
which prohibit certain paid state
employees from lobbying for a
year after leaving their jobs.
“At no time did anybody in that
administration from the governor
on down publicly announce that
that guy was on the payroll of a
private consulting company,” Sen-
ate Majority Leader Richard L.
Saslaw (D-Fairfax) said in an in-
terview Friday. “The whole thing
just smells.”
Moran declined a request to be
interviewed but issued a state-
ment through Youngkin’s press
office defending the arrangement.
“I am on leave from all compa-
nies and as a result do not have
clients with business before the
Governor or state government,”
Moran said in the statement. “I

formalized this arrangement with

counsel’s office and I am fully

committed to my service to the

Governor and the people of Vir-

ginia. It is a privilege to have the

opportunity to serve the Governor

and work on behalf of the Com-

monwealth.”

Moran’s statement did not pro-

vide a reason for the unpaid ar-

rangement. Three people with

knowledge of his situation said he

had agreed to serve the adminis-

tration for only a few months, just

long enough to guide Youngkin

through his first General Assem-

bly session.

Moran’s stay might be extend-

ed, because the legislature ad-

journed March 12 without com-

pleting work on the two-year

budget and a handful of

h igh-profile bills, according to the

three, who spoke on the condition

of anonymity because they were

not authorized to share his plans.

Youngkin has called a special ses-

sion for April 4.

Moran’s willingness to work for

the state for free could help him

win favor with the governor as he

decides what firms will handle his

political work. Youngkin, whose

win in a seemingly blue state

made him a national GOP sensa-

tion and the object of 2024 presi-

dential speculation, is in the early

stages of establishing what is ex-

pected to be a hefty political oper-

ation.

Axiom Strategies, the political

consulting firm engaged for his

campaign, has continued to ad-

vise Youngkin since he took office

— also for free, an arrangement

that an Axiom official said was not

unusual for the period between an

election and the establishment of

a sitting governor’s political ac-

tion committee.

Youngkin’s campaign PAC,

V irginia Wins, filed paperwork

this month to change its name to

Spirit of Virginia. Youngkin dis-

closed the new PAC on Wednesday

to explain who was funding a TV

ad he had launched to nudge law-

makers to accept his plan for tax

cuts. Details about who will run

the PAC were not disclosed.

“If [Moran] was motivated by a

desire to cash in on his connection

to the new Governor, he would

have hung up his lobbying shingle

on Jan. 14 right after his successful

Youngkin campaign and transi-

tion,” Richard Cullen, Youngkin’s

chief legal counsel, said in a state-

ment. “He would have been the

hottest guy in Richmond. But

Matt did the opposite and to his

financial detriment.”

Youngkin has another volun-

teer helping his administration:

Aubrey Layne, who was secretary

of finance under Gov. Ralph

Northam (D), has been an unpaid

adviser to his successor, Stephen

E. Cummings. Layne, who also

served as secretary of transporta-

tion under Gov. Terry McAuliffe

(D), has advised Cummings on a

part-time basis while working as a

senior executive for Sentara

Healthcare, a large health system

with interests before the state

government. Layne did not re-

spond to a request for comment.

The administration announced

at the start that Layne would not

be paid. That was also the case for

businessman Robert Sledd, who

volunteered as an economic ad-

viser to Republican Gov. Robert F.

McDonnell after Senate Demo-

crats, upset by Sledd’s intention to

remain on the boards of three

corporations, balked at approving

him for a Cabinet post.

“After reviewing the law, the

ethics rules and precedents of oth-

er administrations, I made a de-

termination about the proper way

to work as a volunteer in the

Governor’s office,” Cullen said in a

statement that Youngkin’s press

office issued Friday along with

Moran’s. “My legal analysis was

the same for both Mr. Moran and

Mr. Layne. It’s important for ad-

ministrations, regardless of the

party in power, to have the ability

to attract talent and expertise as is

the case here. Both Mr. Layne and

Mr. Moran have added value in

their respective duties without

cost to the taxpayer and we have

been transparent about their

roles.”

Moran’s volunteer status was

disclosed only recently, following

inquiries from the media. In re-

sponse to a Freedom of Informa-

tion request from The Washing-

ton Post earlier this month,

Youngkin’s office released a

spreadsheet with salaries for Cab-

inet secretaries and other top offi-

cials. Moran’s was listed as “$0.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch

reported on Moran’s status Friday.

Moran has worked in Virginia

politics for a decade. After manag-

ing a campaign for one rural del-

egate and serving as legislative

aide for another, he rose quickly to

spokesman for House Speaker

William J. Howell (R-Stafford)

from 2012 to 2016 and chief of staff

to Speaker Kirk Cox ( R-Colonial

Heights) from 2018 to 2019.

Moran was Cox’s top strategist

— also as a volunteer — during his

unsuccessful bid for the GOP gu-

bernatorial nomination last year.

He later joined Youngkin’s cam-

paign and transition and was

widely expected to return to pri-

vate political consulting — a rela-

tively new venture for him — once

Youngkin took office.

Described variously in official

state documents as a deputy chief

of staff and director of policy and

legislative affairs, Moran has been

a key adviser to the new governor.

Moran starts each weekday at a

7 a.m. huddle with Youngkin and a

handful of other top aides, all of

them state employees making at

least $170,000 year.

Since January, Moran has

helped Youngkin navigate an un-

familiar Capitol, charting a course

that has mixed feel-good stunts

with hardball power plays.

Whether the governor was be-

stowing his trademark campaign

vests on a pair of Democratic foes

or threatening to oust about 1,000

Democratic appointees from state

boards, Moran has had a hand in

the strategy.

And while results have so far

been mixed, Moran has been in

the middle of it all, including the

governor’s biggest win to date:

getting a bill to make masks op-

tional at K-12 schools through the

Democratic-controlled Senate.

“He was certainly my go-be-

tween with the governor’s office,”

said Del. Marcus B. Simon (D-

Fairfax). Any legislator with a bill

on the ropes with the administra-

tion has had one option, Simon

said: “The way to find out what

was really going on was to go find

Matt Moran.”

That such a prominent mem-

ber of the administration is not a

state employee is “beyond odd,”

Simon said.

“Matt did this probably reluc-

tantly,” Simon said. “It’s clear he

wanted to keep one foot in his new

professional life, but I think he’s

always a good soldier and his com-

monwealth needed him, his gov-

ernor needed him, and they came

up with this funky relationship.

... But the problems it creates —
and the appearance and the actu-
al conflicts — are really hard to
excuse.”

VIRGINIA

Key Youngkin adviser is paid by political firms, not state

BOB BROWN/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Matthew Moran, center, p olicy and legislative affairs director for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), talks with

state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Rockingham), left, and Richard Cullen, the governor’s chief counsel.

BY NICOLE ASBURY

A Netflix documentary focus-
ing on a group of Maryland
teenagers could win an Oscar at
the 94th annual Academy
Awards Sunday.
The documentary, “Audible,”
tells the story of Amaree Mc -
Kenstry-Hall, a senior at Mary-
land School for the Deaf in
Frederick, as he and his close
friends prepare to graduate from
high school and navigate the
hearing world. The 39-minute
film follows McKenstry-Hall and
his friends as they compete on
the football field during an un-
precedented winning streak for
the team.
But it also tells McKenstry-
Hall’s story as he navigates his
family relationships and the loss
of a best friend. The film explains
that the main character lost his
hearing after falling ill with
meningitis as a toddler, and
around the same time, his father
left the family home. Not all of
Mc K enstry-Hall’s family is fluent
in American Sign Language,
causing him to feel disconnected
at home. In the film, he reflects
on how isolating it was growing
up having family members talk

around him.

Ultimately, the film is a “com-

ing-of-age” story, said Matthew

Ogens, the film’s director. While

the experiences and challenges

are unique to the story’s subjects

and the deaf community, many of

the themes are relatable for all

audience members, he said.

“This community has some-

thing to say, and maybe they

communicate differently, but

that doesn’t mean less than,”

Ogens said. “It means different.”

McKenstry-Hall graduated

from Maryland School for the

Deaf in 2020. In a video for

National Deaf History Month

this year, he described himself

and his friends: “Like young

people everywhere, we have big

dreams. We have challenges to

face, sacrifices to make, to make

those dreams come true.”

The documentary short took

12 years to match with a distribu-

tor, Ogens said. Netflix stepped

in in 2019. The film was released

on the streaming service last

July, and it r eceived an Oscar

nomination in the best docu-

mentary short category last

month.

Ogens said he knew from the

start that he wanted to create a

film focusing on a senior from

Maryland School for the Deaf,

but “a lot of people didn’t think

there was an audience for this,”

he said. Some people didn’t un-

derstand how a documentary

could take place mostly without

spoken word, since many of the

cast members use American Sign

Language to communicate. Dur-

ing the 12-year period, Ogens

would regularly go back to the

school to recast the project with

a different senior.

“That was the hard part, until

Netflix came aboard and like,

totally embraced it and got it,”

Ogens said.

Ogens’s ties to the topic go

back to his childhood, he said;

his best friend growing up was

deaf. He felt deeply connected to

the subject material initially, he

said, but it wasn’t until recently

that he understood he was

drawn to it to better understand

his friend.

After Netflix greenlighted the

project, Ogens started following

along McKenstry-Hall’s story in

2019, and wrapped filming by

2020.

“The most important thing to

me is to take the time and spend

the time to make sure Amaree

and his friends and family were

in a safe space to be able to be

vulnerable and tell their story,

because I didn’t want to do an

observational film from my

point of view,” Ogens said. “I

wanted to kind of be a conduit or

a liaison for them to tell their

story.”

MARYLAND

Oscar-nominated documentary follows deaf football player from Frederick

CHRIS DELMAS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Matthew Ogens directed “A udible,” a documentary about a senior at Maryland School for the Deaf. It is

nominated for best documentary short at the Oscars. Ogens is seen last week in Beverly Hills, Calif.

“Like young people

everywhere, we have

big dreams.”

Amaree Mc Kenstry-Hall,

who is featured in “Audible”

(202) 919-9209 (301) 778-4222 (703) 650-9337