Already, a host of potential candidates are running for California's open governor's chair in 2010. But few of the candidates are offering new ideas or new thinking. The exception is Tom Campbell, the former Congressman and former Schwarzenegger finance director. Let's hope he manages to get a hearing in a Republican field that could include two billionaires -- insurance commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay head Meg Whitman.

Campbell has thought more deeply about how to fix the budget problem that just about anyone else. A fiscal conservative, he nonetheless has been talking up the idea of a temporary 18-cent increase in the gasoline tax to cover the current deficit. It's an idea worth considering. When I interviewed Campbell about the budget in 2005, he talked about its various problems, particularly the complexity that made it so difficult to understand. The gas tax idea is simple and would solve the problem. It's the opposite of the complicated legislation the Democrats and Schwarzenegger are cooking up in an attempt to balance the budget and avoid the state's two-thirds rules. Gas prices are low again. The tax could be raised, and prices at the pump would remain below $2. And to the extent that a higher gas tax means that some people won't drive and that alternative fuels make more economic sense, that's good for the environment.

I fear that Campbell's big problem is that he's a mismatch for the current unreal, Alice-in-Wonderland nature of California politics. One bigtime state union representative with whom Campbell had negotiated criticized him by saying, "Tom's the smartest dumb-s**t I ever met. He meant that as an insult--that he was full of smart ideas that didn't match the political realities. I thought it was a great compliment to Tom). Campbell's too direct and intellectually honest to win. But it's a good thing he's running.