You could almost feel it in the wonkish air of this morning’s Sacramento conference on California’s role in the 2008 presidential election: the Golden State needs to feel the love.

The event, sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California, the James Irvine Foundation, and the New America Foundation, featured some interesting panel discussions from lawmakers, politicos, journalists, as well as a luncheon Q&A with Governor Schwarzenegger. The event was designed to discuss the impact of the state’s new February presidential primary.

But the burning question– will we matter?– was never fully resolved. Many panelists admitted that a lot of variables must still play themselves out.

Nonetheless, there were a few event tidbits worth noting:

* The man who helped Schwarzenegger win the 2003 recall, and then lose the 2005 special election initiatives, floated an idea on how to make presidential candidates pay attention to California. GOP political strategist Mike Murphy suggested that perhaps the governor and lawmakers place a bipartisan measure on the ballot that presidential candidates will be forced to weigh in on.

“You could follow the model of the real experts in this [presidential] game: Iowa,” said Murphy. He went on to say that Iowa has used support or opposition to ethanol as just such an issue, one that forces national candidates to take a stand. Such a proposal “would give a parochial California interest some real teeth on these Washington folks who are going to come here,” he said. [Hear his entire comment on the issue here.]

* Meantime, Democratic political strategist Chris Lehane posed another theory on California relevance: the sheer number of votes that can be collected before election day. “You could potentially put more absentee [Democratic] votes out of Los Angeles than are going to take place in Iowa and New Hampshire combined.” In fact, he said, LA County has more registered Dems than Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada combined. And those are the party’s first four stops on the 2008 election train. What would stop a candidate, mused Lehane, from mounting an aggressive absentee campaign and ‘banking’ those votes before Iowans ever even head to their caucus meetings? [Hear Lehane’s comments here.]

* How bipartisan and chummy was the just-ended trip of California legislators visiting Washington, DC? Just ask Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines. “I took a picture with Teddy Kennedy,” said Villines. “If that’s not the spirit of compromise, I’m not sure what is.”

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez then chimed in, saying,”I have that picture!”

To which Villines added the punchline: “Yeah, it’s gonna come out in a piece of [campaign] mail, I’m sure.”

* And finally, another sign that Governor Schwarzenegger is keeping the stakes high for his endorsement of any term limits reform ballot measure. When asked about the issue by PPIC pollster Mark Baldassare, the governor stated: “If they [legislators] have also redistricting [reform] on the ballot… and campaign finance reform also on the ballot, only then we should consider term limit changes. But if it’s only [term limits] alone, don’t go there.”