Harman Tosses Hat (Or Glasses, Anyway) Into AG Ring

Add Tom Harman to the potential list of attorney general candidates.

The 67-year-old Republican state senator from Huntington Beach has opened up a campaign account for the 2010 race but says he’s just “taking a look at things.”

See what he's looking at, after the jump.

“It’s a long ways away, and there’s a lot of jockeying for position going on,” he said this afternoon. And a lot of waiting for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to announce whether she’s running for governor, which will impact whether incumbent AG Jerry Brown runs for a second term or tries to go back to the horseshoe, which will determine what a lot of other would-be AGs do.

Harman, vice-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a political conservative but not a strident one. He co-authored bipartisan legislation earlier this year aimed at curbing ADA lawsuits. He’s authored a lot of tough-on-crime legislation, including an unsuccessful bill earlier this year to speed up death penalty appeals.

Unlike some of Harman’s potential GOP competitors, he did not rise through the ranks of a DA’s office. After graduating from Loyola Law School in 1968 he joined the Southern California firm of Lucas (as in Chief Justice Malcolm) and Deukmejian (as in Gov. George). He later practiced civil law at his own firm for 27 years. He was appointed to the Huntington Beach City Council in 1995 and was elected to the state Assembly in 2000 and to the state Senate in 2006.

Other oft-rumored Republican candidates for AG include Sacramento DA Jan Scully, San Diego DA Bonnie Dumanis, Riverside DA Rod Pacheco, Eastern District US Attorney McGregor Scott and former state Sen. Chuck Poochigian of Fresno.

—  Cheryl Miller