A lot of stuff happening on the political front this last week. First, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has another new girlfriend, and like the last one, she’s also in TV news! Fathers of female Sacramento TV journalists better guard their daughters if Villaraigosa runs for Governor and succeeds! Seriously, while politicians are accorded a private life of sorts, many political operatives shared with CR that this latest disclosure will not help the Mayor. “It just reminds voters about his affair with the first TV news girlfriend,” said one political observer, “and that is a story Mayor Tony V. doesn’t want retold.” Increasingly, CR his hearing that LA’s beleaguered Mayor will not be running for Governor in this election cycle.

On the GOP side, a big polling surprise: Former Schwarzenegger Finance Director, former Congressman, former State Senator Tom Campbell has opened up a lead in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. A recent poll put Campbell at 17%, former eBay executive Meg Whitman at 10% and Insurance Commish Steve Poizner at 7%, with the rest undecided.

The Democrats currently give Attorney General (and former Governor, former State Demo Party Chair, former Mayor of Oakland) Jerry Brown 23.5%; San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom 17.5%; and LA Mayor (and companion of female TV journalists) Antonio Villaraigosa 15.1%.

Obviously, these are early numbers but they do invite some comment. First, Mr. Campbell’s opening up a lead on Ms. Whitman (known among political writers as eMeg) illustrates that his candidacy is to be taken seriously. He has opened this lead in the wake of an aggressive press blitz by Ms. Whitman. Poizner’s low numbers are a puzzle, since he has been extremely aggressive in going after Ms. Whitman. It may be that his attacks on Ms. Whitman blunted her benefits from her press blitz, but also depressed Mr. Poizner’s own upward mobility.

Among Democrats, the Attorney General’s lead in the polls is not impressive. Easily the most well-known candidate on the Demo side, a showing of less than 25% suggests that California Dems don’t feel the kind of connection that will glide him into the Governor’s Mansion (oh, wait, California does NOT have a Governor’s Mansion).

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