LOS ANGELES — Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt may be the only California gubernatorial candidate honest enough to come out and say he doesn’t have a shit’s chance in a flushing California toilet. Maybe not in those words.
Flynt believes he doesn’t have a chance of winning Tuesday’s election to replace Gov. Gray Davis — and he has the polling numbers to back that opinion up.

Flynt, who is among 135 candidates on the ballot, commissioned a survey in August that showed only 1 percent of voters supporting him. The poll indicated he could garner, at most, 4 percent of the vote.

According to the survey, only 10 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of Flynt, with 75 percent holding an unfavorable one.

One in three voters said they were willing to listen to his views, however, with men under 50, Hispanics, liberals and voters earning less than $40,000 a year among the most willing to give him a fair hearing.

“I never, for any second, had any ambition of being elected governor or going to Sacramento,” Flynt said. “I knew voters would never be able to separate my candidacy from my profession.”

Flynt said he entered the race to get across ideas about expanding casino gambling to offset budget shortfalls and rehabilitating drug offenders.

“I was interested in the platform,” Flynt said. “I thought I had ideas and I thought if I got them out in the marketplace, other politicians would incorporate them or members of the press would take them up.”