A collection of wild-eyed dreamers already have emerged with the hope of challenging Gov. Jan Brewer in the 2010 elections. No, I’m not talking about Terry Goddard or Jim Pederson or Andrew Thomas or J.D. Hayworth. The first official candidates are real longshots, the kind that media pundits have traditionally called political gadflies.

The best known of this group would be Roy Miller, a political blogger who helped to found the Goldwater Institute and is a frequent Tribune letter writer. Others who have filed with the secretary of state include church pastor Tim Willis, insurance agent Janelle Wood and business accountant Hugh Kealer.

But the candidate with the catchiest name and best campaign Web site to date has to be John Paul Mitchell, who is just 30 and a manager at a Phoenix credit card call center. He also has self-published a book which lays some groundwork to explain how we can run modern government in America without collecting any taxes (the ultimate libertarian dream!).

I am most intrigued by Mitchell’s “self-designed” campaign logo. Take a look.

It is pretty good. But Mitchell claims he came up with the logo “from scratch” after teaching himself how to use Adobe Illustrator. Really? There isn’t anything out there that might have inspired this design? Nothing that looks remarkably similar and has been seen around the world for the past year?

Mitchell told me others have noted the same similarity since he unveiled his logo earlier this month. While “partially inspired” by the Obama campaign logo, Mitchell gives more credit to the Arizona state flag and its sunrise colors.

“I wanted to choose a circular logo because anything with a circle represents wholeness,” Mitchell said.

So, do you think Mitchell’s logo is a flattering imitation or is he simply a copycat? You decide.