What isn't on the public schedule is a private meeting with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said a source familiar with the trip.

With talk of California possibly moving up its primary schedule, the state takes on added importance for Giuliani, whose moderate positions -- relative to the rest of the prospective 2008 field on the GOP side -- should be an unqualified positive there.

Giuliani already enjoys the diehard backing of Bill Simon, the 2002 Republican candidate for governor of California, who held a fund-raiser for Giuliani at his Pacific Palisades home on Jan. 29th. With all the necessary caveats about the overstated importance of endorsements, the addition of Schwarzenegger would be big.

--Jason Horowitz