At the beginning of the year, Sen. Tom Harman stopped by our offices for his annual visit with us to discuss the pressing issues of the day. It’s something I really appreciate. A lot of lawmakers, especially incumbents after they’ve established themselves, prefer to keep out of the spotlight and meetings with editorial boards have a nagging way of generating news you can’t control. That’s what you get when you invite a free-wheeling conversation with a room full of diggers. Journalists are nosy types who like to circle back over and over again with a rephrased version of a question until they catch a politician napping and revealing something they might not have wanted to let out.

Harman’s a lot more accessible than your average pol, though. I’ve called him lots of times and he answers his phone and rarely takes me off the record. In fact, during my interview with him today as he made it official that he’s running for the Republican nomination for state attorney general, he surprised me with a moment of candor. If he wins, he says, this is his last stop in his political career. He doesn’t view the attorney general’s job like so many others before him have — as a stepping stone to something bigger. He really just wants to be the state’s top attorney.

So how does he plan to win that prize? I hate to tell you this, especially if you’re a Republican and you like the guy, but Harman’s chances don’t look so good at this point. First of all, he’s a Republican. No offense, but there are more Democrats statewide than Republicans. Simple math. And he probably doesn’t have much name recognition outside of Orange County so he’ll have to spend millions to introduce himself to California voters with television advertisements.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has much the same problem, except that he’s ultimately trying to unseat an entrenched, powerful and well-financed incumbent in Sen. Barbara Boxer. Still, DeVore’s undeterred. He saw how Barack Obama came out of nowhere to win the White House with a smart, trailblazing campaign that utilized new media to raise money and get his message out.

Harman learned the same lesson and as he rolled out his campaign Thursday he did so utilizing new media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

There’s just one major difference between Harman and DeVore. DeVore’s an early adopter of new technology. He’s one of the savviest Republicans when it comes to manipulating the new media tools. In fact, he won a Shorty award for using Twitter to raise campaign cash.

When Harman came to visit us in January we knew he was ramping up a run for AG so naturally we questioned him about how he intended to get over the significant hurdles any Republican faces running for statewide office. He was quite unaware then of social networking and in his usual candor did not try to hide it, but said he was intent on learning it. When I talked to him Thursday he was much more conversant in the new-media jargon after he wisely hired consultants to help him.

So far, though, he’s got about 31 followers on Twitter and it’s pretty pedestrian stuff. His latest is an attack on Democrat Kamala Harris, one of the leading candidates in the other primary.

And just take a look at his YouTube video announcing his campaign. It starts with another broadside against Harris and her opposition to the death penalty. It’s one way for a politician to establish himself by defining a potential opponent, but it also gives free publicity to another candidate and elevates them in the eyes of a voter as credible. But that’s not so bad. What’s really surprising is how amateurish the YouTube video is. At first it appears it’s 4:37 minutes long. Yikes! Who wants to sit through a 4-minute video of a politician — especially if you’ve never heard of him? But it’s really more like 1:45 minutes — the rest is a black screen which eventually yields some elevator music. Huh? Let’s hope his candidacy doesn’t fade to black like that.

P.S. I’m going to Chicago this weekend and while there I’ll try to blog. I’ll follow this up tomorrow with a little more on Harman’s intended policies as attorney general. I hate to harp on the politics so much since policy is so much more important, but you can’t implement policy if you can’t get elected and so far I wouldn’t advise betting the house on Harman’s campaign no matter how sincere or well-intended he is. Still, I will say this: If the Democratic field remains as crowded as it appears it could be then they’ll have to spend a lot of money tearing each other apart while Harman could get a free ride in the GOP primary. So far, there are no other significant GOP candidates and most political observers are sure incumbent Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown will be running for governor (hence the wide-open Democratic field).

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