Old timey-moderate(ish) Republican State Senator Tom Harman of Hungtington Beach has filed to run for Attorney General in 2010. Assuming he faces no meaningful GOP primary challenge, he will face neo-prog cutting edge Demorcratic San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris in the race.   [Capitol  Alert]

State Finance Director Mike Genest says California will start issuing IOUs to vendors starting in March?  Why? Because the state will be out of cash.  If you are a landscaper, carpet cleaner, food service, or construction firm with a state contract, it’s IOU time for you.  [Bloomberg]

San Diego teacher Tom Farber was  tired of having his classroom budget slashed.  So he started selling advertising on tests.  [California Faultline]

And Ron Kaye LA has this quote of Britney Spears and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. With the caption “What is there to Say?  Could there be a truer image for the state of the city?”  Indeed.  Check out his site for the full background of this photo.  [Ron Kaye LA]

The results showed that among Democrats, Sen. Feinstein had the highest favorable rating with 70%.  But that number is a bit misleading since Sen. Di-Fi was the only name in the survey that Dem voters really recognized.

The question that the poll asked was whether someone had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the candidate.  We wonder what Di-Fi’s numbers would be if the question was “Would you vote for Di-Fi knowing that she’ll be 77 years old on inauguration day.” Yeah, we know they’d have to ask it more scientific-like, but you get the idea.  We respect Di-Fi, but 77 is too old to start your term as Governor of California.

Then there’s the Gavin Newsom problem. Mayor Newsom only had a 38% favorable rating among Dems and a 7% favorable among Republicans.   Newsom and Di-Fi both had a 71% unfavorable with Republicans, which surprised us considering that Republicans have had decades to build up disdain for Feinstein whereas Newsom invoked their rage in a few short years (we think that whole “whether-ya-like-it-or-not” thing probably had something to do with it…just a guess).

What’s also interesting is that once you take into account the fact that people recognized Jerry Brown’s name more than Antonio Villaraigosa, the two potential candidates had surprisingly close favorable and unfavorable. Check this out:

Among all voters, Brown has 34% favorable/32% “No Opinion” and Villaraigosa has 28% favorable/39% “No Opinion.”   Both had 21% unfavorable among Dems and almost exactly the same numbers among “Non Partisans” (32%33% Favorable, 25%/24%unfavorable, 43%/43% No Opinion).

We have issues with Jerry Brown, but there’s denying that he’s a dedicated public servant who is a lifelong student of California government, that counts for a lot in our book.  We’re still trying to figure out what Villraigosa has done as L.A. Mayor.  What we do know is that Mayor Villaraigosa has used his office as a way to get on the national stage, first as Hillary’s National Co-Chair and now he’s shoehorning his way into Obama-transition photo ops.  Yuk.

The other two Dems have serious name recognition problems: State Superintendent of Schools and No-On-8 commercial star Jack O’Connell registered a 74% “No Opinion” and Lt. Gov John Garamendi clocked in with a 53% “No Opinion”.  It’s understandable that nobody knows who O’Connell is but Garamendi has been on the scene for the past billion years, that does not bode well.

Our concern is this:  Di-Fi is too divisive among Republicans and flat out too old. Newsom is not only too divisive but, as we’ve pointed out before,will be ditched by organized labor and the mainstream wing of the CalDems. O’connell is an unknown and being the schools chief is a serious liability. Garamendi strikes us as the Bill Richardson of the governor’s race, a guy you want in the back room doing the nuts and bolts work, but missing the spark to be at the top of the ticket.

That leaves Jerry Brown and Villaraigosa.  Brown may have way too much baggage and he’ll be 72 by the time the race rolls around. Villaraigosa is young, handsome, sounds good, and may be able to garner high-profile national support, plus the Latino vote.  We have a baaad feeling about this….

On the Republican side, Ex-Ebay CEO Meg Whitman, former Congressman and State Controller Tom Campbell, and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner all had serious name recognition problems. Whitman clocked in with a 67% “No Opinion”, Campbell with 73% “No Opinion” and Poizner with 76% “No Opinion”.

These numbers are meaningless since it’s so early, but if we had to put a nickel on it, we’d say Whitman, should she run, will be the Republican candidate. She’s a pragmatic social moderate and will likely run as a continuation of Schwarzenegger (she just hired Steve Schmidt, the McCain strategist who also ran Arnold’s 2006 re-election campaign).

But again, these numbers are just a snapshot of where we stand now…lots will change.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will tour a mens’ restroom in a Century City high-rise today to promote city-supported water conservation methods adopted by the business community, including waterless urinals. Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power General Manager David Nahai will hold a news conference to discuss the “cost-effective and sustainable water conservation efforts being implemented in the city’s commercial sector,” said an LADWP statement. The mayor will also tour an 11th-floor restroom featuring waterless urinals, it said.

What’s with the Mayor and all the scatology lately?  Wait, maybe this is not a campaign stop.  Is this part of his job?  We’re confused.

Nobody?  What about Michael Arthur Hirt, the self-proclaimed “Exorcisor of Presidents?” or “Temple 420″ founder and guy-who-was-on-one-episode of “Weeds”, Craig X Rubin?  We here at Johnny California will be looking more into these people.

We are wary of of Mayor Villaraigosa as it is unclear to us exactly what he’s accomplished during his tenure as L.A.’s Mayor. It seems like he’s never in town, and when he’s here what does he do?

Turns out, the LA Weekly wondered the same thing, and a couple of months back wrote two excellent articles about how the Mayor spends his days and the culture of self-promotion that seems to be his top priority. To be fair, we are doing some research to evaluate the Mayor’s tenure as objectively as possible and we’ll report back.  Perhaps our opinion of him we’ll change, we’re open to that.

In the meantime, here’s our favorite clip of the Mayor, where after Steve Edwards accidentally says “fart” (combined the words “funny” and “smart”), the Mayor tells us about “tushy bubbles.”

Click here to view the embedded video.