OXFORD - Richard Moore, a two-term state treasurer and former secretary of crime control, officially announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday.

Moore, 46, made the announcement in a courtyard at his high school in Oxford. Several hundred campaign volunteers and family friends were treated to barbecue and live bluegrass.

He grew up in the small Granville County town, where his father was a warehouse owner and his grandfather once served as a congressman.

In a 20-minute speech, he cited small-town values, pledging to bring a "common sense" approach to state government. He noted that his father hated to throw anything away, making him learn to rebuild a lawn mower when he was young.

"I've worked to take that fix-it mentality and apply it to government," he said. "Because we need a fresh approach rooted in our best traditions to face the challenges of tomorrow, I'm here to declare my candidacy for governor of the great state of North Carolina."

Moore's major campaign pledge was to expand access to health care to every North Carolinian. He said that emergency room visits by the uninsured and inadequate insurance for the working poor were a drag on the state's economy.

"You can't have a strong economy without affordable health care," he said.

Government experience

He also cited his experience in state government.

As secretary of crime control, he said he sped up the delivery of emergency supplies after natural disasters and gave state troopers laptops to do criminal background checks from their patrol cars.

As state treasurer, he said he brought "common-sense values of Main Street to Wall Street," pushing for corporate accountability as head of the state employees' pension fund and during a yearlong stint on the New York Stock Exchange.

"We took on companies and we fought abuses that put our retirees' savings at risk, like some of those outrageous pay packages for CEOs who absolutely did not deserve them," he said.

Moore enters the race with several advantages.

He already has raised $2.6 million for his campaign coffers, has won the state treasurer's office twice and gained national attention for his corporate reform efforts.

Like several other gubernatorial candidates this year, he's also personally wealthy, thanks to his investments and shares his family owns in a privately held grocery store chain. So far, he has not spent any of his own money on his gubernatorial campaign.

As Moore prepared to enter the governor's race, his political fundraising has drawn scrutiny. His campaign has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from money managers whom he chose to invest in the state's $74 billion pension fund, and his department has given lucrative legal bond work to the firms of lawyers who have helped finance his political career.

Moore has said repeatedly the donations and decisions about who manages the pensions or who gets the legal work aren't related. And he has cited the retirement system's strong returns as proof that his decisions have been good for the state.

Moore is expected to face Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue in the Democratic primary. She has been actively raising campaign funds, but has not officially announced her candidacy.

On the Republican side, Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and state Sen. Fred Smith have announced their bids for governor.

(Staff writer Rob Christensen contributed to this report.)