When I asked Sen. Tom Harman why he’s running for attorney general, he immediately attacks the incumbent, Jerry Brown. Not to dwell too much on strategy since I said my follow-up on Harman’s candidacy would dwell more on policy, but I have to say it seems ill-fated. If Brown’s not running for another term as attorney general, and I think we can all agree he’s running to be governor again, then why attack him? President Obama pulled this trick off because he managed to equate his GOP opponent John McCain with President Bush, and he was also able to exploit it during the primary because Bush was about as popular as Tina Fey at a John Birch Society meeting. Does Brown have those same negatives? Is he despised statewide? I doubt it. He wouldn’t be running for governor if that were the case. You don’t see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ramping up a challenge to Sen. Barbara Boxer do you? He knows how high his negatives are right now.

Anyway, to get back on track, Harman’s main beef with Brown is his high profile, so to speak, and how he’s used his power to further what he considers are liberal causes.

“I’m not very happy with the way the current Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has maintained the office. He’s politicized the office, putting his personal politics ahead of his duties and responsibilities,” Harman said.

“He’s been very liberal to his approach to the job, particularly in the field of enforcing the greenhouse gas bill,” Harman said, returning to a complaint he’s made before about Brown using his office to force San Bernardino and three other counties to comply with the cap on greenhouse gases. “That’s the kind of anti-business, anti-growth type of liberal use of the office that bothers me. That’s one of the reasons why I got in the race.”

Harman also objected to the way Brown used his office to try to sue to overturn Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage after the courts ruled in favor of it. The state supreme court rejected Brown’s legal challenge, by the way. One wonders if liberals will hold a grudge against Brown for essentially making it harder to get their way or if they’ll admire his pluck in trying to undo Proposition 8.

“[Brown] said, ‘Well, I’m not going to follow the constitution,’ ” Harman said. “I’m going to follow the constitution and the laws of California notwithstanding what my thoughts and beliefs are.”

Harman also wants to streamline the legal road to the death penalty. He has failed as a legislator to speed up the appeals process for death-row prisoners. Part of the problem, he acknowledges, is a shortage of attorneys. It can take up to 5 years to get an attorney appointed for a death-row prisoner.

He promises he won’t politicize the office because he has no interest in using it as a stepping stone to higher political ground.

“This is a job that I want, and I will stay there as long as I’m able to,” Harman said. “This would probably be a good way to wind down my political career.”

He has watched some entrenched, veteran lawmakers hang on long past their prime and he doesn’t want to repeat the mistake, he said.

As for his experience in the legal field, Harman practiced general civil law in Huntington Beach for 35 years. He opened his own practice in 1975 and operated that until he joined the legislature in 2001. As a lawyer he was basically a general practitioner. He handled the incorporation of partnerships, real estate deals, probate trusts, divorces and personal injury cases.

I’m not sure his political strategy will work, but I see where he has to take a more conservative approach in the primary. Harman’s been attacked before as a Republican In Name Only, something he vehemently protests. Naturally, though, he’ll have to migrate back closer to the middle if he wants to win.

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