Democratic South Carolina gubernatorial challenger Tommy Moore found a receptive audience Saturday for his criticism of Gov. Mark Sanford's handling of the Jasper port project.

Standing on the banks of the Savannah River where the county has long sought to build a port facility, Moore criticized Sanford for failing to resolve the stalemate between the county and the S.C. State Ports Authority over control of the port site.

That dispute has held up work on the port and now is before a circuit court judge. County officials say the port could create as many as 90,000 new jobs and add billions to the local economy.

Moore, who has hammered Sanford over the state's high unemployment rate, said one of his first acts as governor would be convene a meeting between Jasper County officials and the Ports Authority to hash out a compromise.

"I'm flabbergasted that all parties have never sat down together at the table," he said. "But that's typical of the way the governor does business."

Faced with similar criticism earlier this month, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said the governor remained willing to meet with county officials but was satisfied that the Ports Authority was moving forward with the project.

Most of Jasper's elected officials and several top administrators braved alternating waves of small raindrops and large mosquitoes to cheer Moore's riverside appearance.

County Council Chairman George Hood, a Democrat, led the crowd in three cheers of "Jasper deserves better."

County Administrator Andrew Fulghum snapped pictures of Moore as a cargo ship from the Port of Savannah passed in the background. State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, introduced his senate colleague as "the next governor."

That support is no surprise in a county where no Republicans entered this year's local primaries. But officials said much of their disenchantment with Sanford stemmed from the Ports Authority board of directors, which is appointed by the governor.

A new board could help foster a compromise by easing fears that the Ports Authority does not intend to build a port in Jasper and is fighting for the land only to prevent competition with the port in Charleston, County Council Vice-Chairwoman Gladys Jones said.

"We've always been willing to let the Ports Authority do it if they would do it and not just sit on it," she said. "A lot of our opposition is based on their past history."

Moore said he would "review all boards and commissions" if elected but had no immediate plans to replace the Ports Authority board. He also stopped well short of endorsing the county's plan to build the port in conjunction with a private port developer.

"No one's going to lose, but no one will win everything they want either," he said, adding that he had spent his career working out difficult compromises.

However, Moore appeared less than intimately familiar with the details of the port project. Asked where the project now stands, he said it was "in litigation" but referred other questions to county officials.

Moore has trailed Sanford in polls all summer but had closed to within 9 points in a poll released this month by Rasmussen Reports. It was the first time the Democrat had been within single digits.