A couple of days ago, the "Harman Report" slid over the transom. It included an announcement that the California State Sheriff's Association has recognized him as "Outstanding Legislator for 2008."

The obvious relevancy of this was left unstated in the announcement (since it is an official officeholder communication): Harman has formed a committee to explore a 2010 run for Attorney General.

Which leads me to the subject of what the future holds for Assemblyman Van Tran. He is termed out in 2010. The conventional wisdom is he will either challenge Sen. Lou Correa's re-election in the 34th Senate District, or run for the 47th Congressional District -- especially if incumbent Rep. Loretta Sanchez goes through with talk about running for statewide office in 2010.
As readers will recall, Van was all set to run for the 34th Senate District in 2006, but ultimately stepped aside in favor of Senate OP Leader Dick Ackerman's designated candidate, Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher. Van proved a real team playeer and worked very hard on behalf of Daucher.

So here's my bold prediction: Van Tran will form a campaign committee to run for the 35th Senate District.

Why? Because there are several advantages to this strategy:

If Harman is successful and is elected AG in 2010, there will be a special election inSD35, for which the just-termed out Van will have been campaigning and fundraising for two years.

If Harman isn't successful, the seat will be open in 2012, and Van will have been able to leverage his last two years int eh Assembly to raise moolah for a run four years hence.

And should Van change his mind and decide to challenge Lou Correa in 2010, he can simply shift the funds from his SD35 committee to a SD34 committee.

Of coruse, here are complications to this theory. Assemblyman Jim Silva will no doubt run for SD35, as well, whether it opens up in 2011 or 2012.

Who would Harman back? I don't know. It's entirely posible, if not likey, that both Silva and Van have had conversations with Harman on the topic. That's par for the course in politics.

Time will tell if my theory pans out.