Candidate News Thread - Jon Huntsman Jr.

[Geee]

“Let me just say, we’ve been asked occasionally, ‘Well, you served President Obama,’ ” he said. “I did serve President Obama. I served my president, my president asked me to serve, in a time of war, in a time of economic difficulty in this country. I’m the kind of person, when asked by my president to stand up and serve my country, when asked, I do it.”

 

 

 

9th United States Ambassador to China

In office

August 11, 2009 – April 30, 2011

 

16th Governor of Utah

In office

January 3, 2005 – August 11, 2009

 

United States Ambassador to Singapore

In office

1992–1993

 

Born

March 26, 1960 (age 51)

Palo Alto, California

 

Spouse(s)

Mary Kaye Cooper

 

Children

Mary Anne Huntsman

Abigail Huntsman

Elizabeth Huntsman

Jon Huntsman III

William Huntsman

Gracie Mei Huntsman

Asha Bharati Huntsman

 

Alma mater

University of Pennsylvania

 

Religion

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

 

Net worth

$11–$74 million

Wikipedia

 

Jon Huntsman, Jr

Presidential 2012

 

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[Geee]

New Hampshire, meet Jon Huntsman

 

CONCORD, N.H. — On a five-day swing through New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman Jr. is taking his boldest steps yet toward a possible presidential bid, meeting with voters and offering the kind of personal exchanges they have come to expect in this politically critical state.

 

In a series of meetings in living rooms and watering holes, Huntsman has patted shoulders, shaken hands and attempted to answer this question:

 

 The former governor of Utah is exploring a possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

 

“Aside from Utah, who are you, and what have you done?” one voter asked Friday.

 

That is Huntsman’s fundamental challenge — explaining his record as governor of a small Western state, his most recent job as President Obama’s ambassador in China, and why he has launched a potential bid to unseat his former boss.

 

Huntsman tried to preempt a specific question about his tenure in China.

 

“Let me just say, we’ve been asked occasionally, ‘Well, you served President Obama,’ ” he said. “I did serve President Obama. I served my president, my president asked me to serve, in a time of war, in a time of economic difficulty in this country. I’m the kind of person, when asked by my president to stand up and serve my country, when asked, I do it.”

 

Huntsman said he is in the “due diligence” phase of weighing a race for the White House and is expected to decide by June. In the meantime, he has some work to do in raising his profile.

 

While he is well-known in Washington and just purchased a home in the city, he is unfamiliar outside of political circles and Utah, where he served one full term and part of a second before Obama tapped him for the post in China.

 

The most recent Granite State polls show Huntsman barely registering with primary voters — 71 percent of Republicans still don’t know who he is.(snip)

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-hampshire-meet-jon-huntsman/2011/05/19/AFnQ6l7G_story.html

[Geee]

Jon Huntsman weighs GOP presidential bid

 

WINDHAM, N.H. — Jon Huntsman Jr. is hoping for lightning to strike.

 

 

By Josh T. Reynolds, for USA TODAY

S

Just three weeks after he left the job of ambassador to China in the Obama administration, the former governor of Utah is on a five-day swing through New Hampshire, heading from house party to college commencement to gun shop as he weighs a campaign for the Republican nomination to oppose his former boss.

 

Even as another prospective Republican contender, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, announced Sunday he won't run for president, Huntsman is moving toward the race with the apparent enthusiasm of his wife, Mary Kaye, who was at every stop with him. Daniels' demurral could boost Huntsmans' standing as a potential alternative to GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.

 

"Politics is a surprising business," Huntsman, 51, says in one of several interviews with USA TODAY between campaign stops this weekend. "People can come in with the right message and capture the zeitgeist of the public and they're off and running. It's catching lightning in a bottle."

He'll need it: At the moment, only one in four Republican voters nationwide has any idea who Huntsman is, according to a Gallup Poll this month in which he had the support of 2%.

 

When voters do meet him, one of the first things they'll learn is that, until recently, he worked for President Obama.

 

Would Republicans, fractured on some issues but united in their fierce opposition to Obama, be willing to nominate a challenger who served in his administration for nearly two years?

 

For some, it could be disqualifying.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2011-05-22-Jon-Huntsman-campaign-president-obama-New-Hampshire_n.htm?csp=34news

[Geee]

Doing a Favor for Jon Huntsman

 

MAY 22 2011, 2:41 PM ET

As the field of potential Republican 2012 contenders continues to thin out, simple math makes prospects brighten for anyone still around. Among those is of course Jon Huntsman Jr, former governor of Utah and Ambassador to China, a rising-star and comparative moderate widely assumed to be the Republican trickiest for Obama to handle -- if he could figure out how to become the Republican nominee.

 

As a favor to Huntsman and as a public service, I'll get on the record a video clip that I suspect his own campaign (if/when he declares) won't be rushing to publicize. It is Huntsman's nomination speech for Sarah Palin at the 2008 GOP convention.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAc1I--I8Os&feature=player_embedded

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/doing-a-favor-for-jon-huntsman/239268/

[Rheo]

Jon Huntsman, Jr
Presidential 2012

[Pepper]

Candidate News Threads courtesy of Geee:

 

Herman Cain: Candidate News Thread

 

Newt Gingrich: Candidate News Thread

 

Jon Huntsman Jr: Candidate News Thread

 

Gary E Johnson: Candidate News Thread

 

Ron Paul: Candidate News Thread

 

Tim Pawlenty: Candidate News Thread

 

Mitt Romney: Candidate News Thread

 

RIck Santorum: Candidate News Thread

[AceRimmer]

Considering the fact that he's the poster boy with the LSM now that Mitch Daniels is out sends big red flags soaring...

[Geee]

Huntsman won't be at June 13 debate in N.H.

 

 

Jon Huntsman won't participate in a presidential debate scheduled for June 13 in New Hampshire — and he won't announce his decision about whether to run until after that date.

 

Huntsman is still conducting "due diligence" and thinking about a run, aides said.

 

Continue Reading

"Governor Huntsman will be spending the next few weeks continuing the due diligence process in line with the very short decision-making timetable he has laid out. He will not be participating in any debates until after that process is over and he formally announces his intentions. That announcement will not come before the June 13th debate," said Paul Collins, Huntsman's chief consultant in New Hampshire.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55862.html

[Geee]

Mary Kaye Huntsman: The unreluctant spouse

 

 

 

HANOVER, N.H. —Mary Kaye Huntsman stands out from the crowd of prospective 2012 presidential spouses in one important way: she actually wants her husband to be president.

 

In a season of reluctant partners, she’s not only supportive of Jon Huntsman’s presidential run but a key force in making it happen.

 

 

In her maiden outing on the trail in New Hampshire, she showed an easy familiarity with retail politicking. She’s also been a central player in the decision-making process — most notably, she pushed to base the former Utah governor’s campaign in Orlando, Florida, where she grew up. Perhaps most important, she says she’s at peace with, and fully committed to, the prospect of her husband’s presidential run.

 

“I am very comfortable. I feel very much at peace about it. At the end of the day it’s his decision, and he knows we are 100 percent behind him. … I believe in him,” Mary Kaye Huntsman said.

 

That places her at sharp odds with several other wives who blanched at the prospect, expressing — either privately or publicly — profound misgivings about the idea of putting their families through a grueling bid for the White House. Most recently, it was Cheri Daniels whose reticence played a critical role in her husband Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’s decision to forgo a 2012 campaign.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55860.html

[Geee]

KRAUTHAMMER: HUNTSMAN’S ‘FATAL PROBLEM’ AS A CANDIDATE – PEOPLE LIKE NEWSWEEK’S EVAN THOMAS LIKE HIM

 

 

http://www.breitbart.tv/krauthammer-huntsmans-fatal-problem-as-a-candidate-people-like-newsweeks-evan-thomas-like-him/

[Geee]

Huntsman’s Stimulus Record

 

 

On Feb. 23, 2009, then–Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. (R.) cast his eyes toward Washington, D.C. He did not like what he saw. President Obama was toasting the passage of his first major piece of legislation: the stimulus package. But Huntsman wasn’t peeved at the president; he was peeved at his own party.

 

The GOP was flailing in opposition, he kvetched on MSNBC. Its approach was all wrong: “It’s about bold solutions and pragmatic approaches that make us preeminent as opposed to gratuitous political griping,” Huntsman said, referring to the party’s reaction to the stimulus. “We’ve got to get beyond the gratuitous political carping.”

 

That same day, he laid the condemnation on extra thick: He told the Washington Times, “I don’t even know the congressional leadership. I’ve not met them. I don’t listen to or read whatever it is they say because it’s inconsequential — completely.”

Sounds as if he supported the stimulus. Well, not quite. Although Huntsman accepted the $1.5 billion that the legislation offered Utah, his reasoning — particularly the kind he outlined to Neil Cavuto on Fox News — was pragmatic: “If stimulus money is going to be invested in the U.S. economy, why don’t those dollars follow projects that are ready to go? Our state has more shovel-ready projects than any state in America right now.”

 

Or as Cavuto summed up: “You’re saying, look, if the money is going to be out there, we want dibs on this, too.”

 

Besides, Huntsman stressed — for months — that tax cuts should be part of the package. “For example, a payroll-tax exemption or maybe even a cut in the corporate tax . . . for small and medium-sized businesses for three years” should have been included, he told Politico after the bill’s signing. He even told Cavuto that he would have voted against the stimulus if he had been in Congress.

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/268585/huntsman-s-stimulus-record-brian-bolduc

[Geee]

Huntsman’s Carolina Puzzle

 

In early May, fresh off the plane, Jon Huntsman gave the commencement address at the University of South Carolina.

 

As the former Utah governor weaved lyrics from Carolina singer-songwriter Ben Folds into his remarks, his advisers huddled near the back of Colonial Life arena.

 

It was an important moment: The speech, delivered days after he resigned as U.S. ambassador to China, was Huntsman’s first in the Palmetto State as a potential 2012 presidential contender.

 

 

Huntsman, according to most observers, aced it. His Beijing anecdotes and soft-focus stories charmed. But it was, of course, a speech to fresh-faced college graduates, not to a room of conservative primary voters. Winning over the latter, especially in the Deep South, will be Huntsman’s challenge in coming months.

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/268729/huntsman-s-carolina-puzzle-robert-costa

[Valin]

[Geee]

Huntsman’s Immigration Record

 

 

State representative Stephen Sandstrom (R., Utah) remembers former governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. (R.) less than fondly. “His record on illegal immigration is very poor as far as enforcement goes,” he tells National Review Online.

 

The offenses, in Sandstrom’s mind, are plentiful. In 2005, Huntsman signed a bill that granted driving privileges to illegal aliens. Instead of a driver’s license, an illegal alien could apply for a driving-privilege card, which the state distinguished from the former by stamping “not valid for identification” across its top. Four years later, Huntsman and the legislature revised the layout to make the two cards even more visually distinct. And the driving-privilege card was invalid for buying alcohol or guns, the pols insisted.

 

But Sandstrom still opposes it. “[The state] can’t control what private businesses do — if people are using it to open checking accounts in banks, for instance. We were legitimizing illegal immigrants. I think it was a very poor bill,” he says.

Huntsman’s defenders counter that illegal immigrants were getting driver’s licenses before the ex-governor had done anything. Because the Utah Department of Vehicles was lax in verifying applicants’ proofs of legal status, drivers’ licenses were effectively available to illegal aliens. This bill meant to stop that.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/268837/jon-huntsman-and-immigration-brian-bolduc

[Geee]

Jon Huntsman's no-names strategy

 

 

Jon Huntsman is trying out a novel strategy: running for president without criticizing the incumbent by name.

 

Since returning from his post as ambassador to China last month, Huntsman has made scant mention of the man who appointed him in May 2009—President Barack Obama. And his would-be campaign officials say that won’t change when the former Utah governor officially launches his campaign.

 

Obama’s political team has so far returned the courtesy. Even as they blast out a seemingly endless stream of attacks on Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, Huntsman’s two establishment GOP rivals, the DNC is issuing few press releases and pushing little opposition research about the man who until the end of April served in the administration.

 

It amounts to a de facto non-aggression pact that is as unconventional as it is tenuous. With a Republican primary electorate convinced Obama is doing grave damage to the country, it’s difficult to see how bloodless rhetoric about the administration and generalized talk about America’s challenges are the recipe for victory. And if Huntsman emerges as a strong contender, it’s improbable to think that a White House that affirmed his political potential by dispatching him to far-off Beijing would let him rise unchecked.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56575.html

[Geee]

Romney’s missing rival

 

Goffstown, N.H.—THE HIDDEN winner in Monday night's Republican presidential debate?

 

Well, he's a certain pragmatic ex-governor, a man who claims strong business credentials.

 

Need another hint?

 

He's often casually clad these days.

 

One more?

 

Well, OK. Let's see: He's a well-known Mormon.

 

No, not Mitt Romney. He was the obvious winner.

 

I'm talking about presumptive candidate Jon Huntsman, who wasn't on the stage at Saint Anselm College.

 

Here's why it was a good night for him: With Romney holding a strong advantage in New Hampshire, the big question has been, who will emerge as his principal rival?

 

No one made much headway there. Instead, the evening's storyline was mostly Mitt and the Munchkins.

 

Crisp and confident throughout the night, Romney looked like a knowledgeable national candidate. The other six seemed like niche candidates vying for a toehold with a more-limited segment of the GOP electorate like the Tea Partiers or the social conservatives or the supply-siders.

 

It was a particularly bad night for Tim Pawlenty. On Sunday, the former Minnesota governor had raised expectations that he would go after Romney by describing the federal health care law as "ObamneyCare.'' But asked about his remarks with Romney there on stage, T-Paw was meek as a churchmouse.

 

Later, his team argued he'd had a good night because some of the early discussion had focused on his widely panned economic plan, which assumes a decade (!) of 5 percent average annual economic growth, something virtually unheard of in the modern era. No one else wanted to wander explicitly into the land of miracle growth. No one except Republican libertarian Ron Paul, that is. ``Free markets will give you 10 percent or 15 percent growth,'' he insisted. (We have 15 percent. Do I hear 20 percent?) Still, Pawlenty spinmeister Nick Ayers seemed happy that Romney had given his boss a verbal pat on the head by agreeing with him that Obama's economic remedies have slowed growth. As to Pawlenty's pie-in-the-sky assumptions, Ayers offered this finely tuned economic argument: ``We didn't go to the moon until we did. We didn't win World War II until we did.''

 

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/15/an_absent_huntsman_wins_big_at_gop_debate/

[Geee]

Jon Huntsman Gears Up For Formal Presidential Announcement

 

Former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman will formally enter the 2012 presidential contest on Tuesday when he announces his candidacy with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

 

Yesterday, the Huntsman campaign offered some clues as to what the contours of their campaign will look like and also displayed what their strengths and weaknesses may be once Huntsman formally enters the fray.

 

First, an e-mail addressed from his wife, Mary Kaye, said:

 

In less than a week, a new generation of conservative leadership will emerge. No loud voices or drama, instead a vision for America that reverses the course we're on.

 

The e-mail hints that Huntsman will probably be nuanced, cerebral and won't shout like a talk radio host on the campaign trail. While this will allow Huntsman to be authentic and not be someone he is not, it may not suit a GOP primary electorate that is fed up with President Obama and where he is trying to take the country.

 

Second, a web video, featuring someone who resembles Huntsman is driving through a Utah desert on a motorbike. In the video, it says that Huntsman did not get fame with his band, which was named Wizard.

 

From watching the video, one can assume that Huntsman will cast himself as an outdoorsy, cool motorcycle enthusiast while highlighting his impressive record as Governor of Utah that saw him get strong marks from both the CATO Institute and the Pew Foundation.

 

He'll appeal to the mainstream media and young voters, but conservatives may want more someone who is more combative than a figure who exudes a James Dean like coolness about him.(snip)

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44213

[Geee]

Huntsman will be only moderate in GOP race

 

 

The lineup of candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination includes no one who can claim to be a moderate, but that will change next week when Jon Huntsman jumps into the race.

Huntsman, who was elected twice as governor of Utah and most recently served as President Obama's ambassador to China, plans to announce his presidential bid on Tuesday at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, with the Statue of Liberty towering behind him.

 

Huntsman chose the same spot where Ronald Reagan stood when he first announced his bid for the presidency more than three decades ago. Huntsman once served as an aide in the Reagan White House, but he is hardly a disciple of the late conservative icon. Huntsman is far more of a centrist on some social and environmental issues, which will distinguish him from the rest of the GOP field but will perhaps make his quest for the Republican nomination more difficult.

 

"I think he will appeal to more mainstream moderate Republicans who are looking for someone who isn't that divisive," said Utah Republican political strategist LaVarr Webb. "I do think he has a real uphill battle to win the nomination given the fact that most of those doing the nominating in the caucus and primaries are pretty conservative and he may not fit the mold they want."

 

As governor from 2004 until 2009, Huntsman was notably moderate when it came to his state's treatment of same-sex couples, announcing support for civil unions in 2009. Huntsman also aligned himself with governors of several other Western states to put implement measures that would cut carbon emissions. Huntsman criticized President George W. Bush in 2007 for his lack of action to reduce global warming, which Huntsman believes is man-made.

 

But Utah political strategists say Huntsman has a strong record as a conservative on other important issues. He cut state taxes by more than $400 million, and he is staunchly pro-life.

 

His state was ranked the best managed in the nation by the Pew Research Center.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/huntsman-will-be-only-moderate-gop-race

[Geee]

Kissinger Won’t Endorse Huntsman, but Offers Lavish Praise

 

Henry Kissinger today had flattering things to say about former ambassador to China and Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. “He certainly makes a good candidate,” Kissinger said at a meeting with bloggers to promote his latest book. “I saw him yesterday, as a matter of fact.”

 

 

Kissinger called Huntsman “intelligent, well-poised.” And said that he thought he did well in his last job: “He did a good job in China,” Kissinger said.

 

But Kissinger didn’t offer – and indicated that he wouldn’t offer – his endorsement. “I normally don’t endorse candidates,” Kissinger said. “Part of the reason is that when I endorse a candidate, he loses. They run away from me. I supported Nelson Rockefeller in three primary campaigns against Nixon…and we lost them all…and I ended up as [national] security of adviser to Nixon.”

 

Several times throughout the meeting Kissinger repeated that he has “no ambitions” to reenter public service. “I was 88 on my last birthday,” Kissinger said. “I have no ambitions. I think my best contributions would be to help…what I think is a reasonable foreign policy.”

 

Kissinger later jokingly indicated that his wife might seek a divorce if he were to return to public service. But he is offering his advice to any 2012 candidates who are interested

 

“I would like not to endorse anybody and be available for foreign policy advice,” Kissinger said. “But not from a partisan point of view.”

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/kissinger-won-t-endorse-huntsman-offers-lavish-praise_574711.html

[Valin]

[Geee]

Right out of the gate, Huntsman fields Democrat attacks

 

Tuesday sees Jon Huntsman’s first day as an official presidential candidate vying for the Republican nomination in 2012, but already, Democrats are on the offense against the former Utah governor and Obama-tapped ambassador to China.

 

On Sunday, David Axelrod, strategist for Obama’s reelection campaign, said on CNN that he’s surprised Huntsman has jumped in the race.

 

“It was a little surprising to me because when we were in Shanghai, we got a chance to talk and he was very effusive about what the president was doing,” said Axelrod. “He [Huntsman] was a little quizzical about what was going on in his own party.”

 

Tim Miller, spokesperson for Huntsman, called Axelrod’s comments “absurd” and “imaginary history,” telling TheDC that “Gov. Huntsman’s record on health care and the economy in Utah were the opposite of President Obama’s top-heavy, government-centric, failed approach.”

 

But on Monday, Wayne Holland, chair of the Utah Democratic Party, held a conference call in which he said the he was “disappointed” in Huntsman’s flip from moderate Republican to “pandering” conservative.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/21/right-out-of-the-gate-huntsman-fields-democrat-attacks/

[Geee]

Jon Huntsman to announce presidential bid at Statue of Liberty

 

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Tuesday will become the latest Republican challenger to President Barack Obama — for whom he served as U.S. ambassador to China.

 

Huntsman is to make it official at 10 a.m. in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty with a warning that "for the first time in our history, we are about to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got. This is totally unacceptable and totally un-American.

 

"It need not, must not, will not be our permanent condition," he said in prepared remarks released by his campaign.

 

Democrats didn't wait for the official campaign kickoff to throw some hits, accusing Huntsman, a moderate Republican who opposes abortion rights but favors civil unions, of shifting his positions to appeal to conservative primary voters.

 

Utah Democratic Party chairman Wayne Holland told reporters that Huntsman worked with Democrats to pass cap and trade legislation and embraced Obama's stimulus plan. Holland says Huntsman only criticism of the economic bailout was that it "should've been larger" — a stance that's anathema to most conservative voters.

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/21/116178/jon-huntsman-to-announce-presidential.html

[Jill]

This guy sounds more like a rich libertarian to me than a conservative or Republican. I don't think his views on the issues are very popular at all, and he doesn't have a chance (unlike Rick Perry) of becomining the GOP nominee. The fact that he worked for Obama is enough alone to rule Huntsman out for me, everybody knows those appointments are strings.

[Ghost]

understand he said we should not criticize Obama.. true?

 

if so, well duh, why change?

 

tired of wimps.

[Casino67]

understand he said we should not criticize Obama.. true?

 

if so, well duh, why change?

 

tired of wimps.

 

Ghost

 

Didn't hear about the Obama statement, but I did hear him say the candidates--Republican candidates--should not attack one another.