Huntsman holds big early lead

GOP gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. leads fellow Republican Nolan Karras in a head-to-head primary matchup, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.

Huntsman also leads Democratic candidate Scott Matheson Jr., pollster Dan Jones & Associates found in a survey conducted last week.

If the primary were today, Huntsman would get 58 percent of the vote to Karras' 19 percent, Jones found.

If the final election were today, Huntsman would have 52 percent support to Matheson's 37 percent.

However, if it were a Matheson-Karras final, Matheson leads Karras 49-34 percent, Jones found.

Both Republican candidates were circumspect about the poll results.

"It's nice to be ahead, better than behind, but there's a long way to go," Huntsman said.

Karras, who like Huntsman survived the state Republican convention a week ago to make it into a June 22 primary, said, "I'm OK with the poll showing what it does. I know I don't have a lot of name identification right now."

While Karras put up some billboards along the Wasatch Front and ran a week's worth of TV spots before the May 8 state GOP convention, he is not as well-known as either Huntsman or Matheson, heirs to two well-known Utah names.

"We've got 40 days" to become better known to Utah voters, said Karras, chairman of the state Board of Regents, which oversees the state's public colleges and universities. "This poll measures name ID. The Huntsmans are well-known, and I'm not concerned about this."

Still, the poll of 923 voters shows Karras has his work cut out for him.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.

Among those who told Jones they are Republicans, Huntsman leads Karras 63-20 percent.

The June 22 election is officially a "closed" primary where only registered Republicans can vote. But unaffiliated voters, those not registered in any political party, can registered as Republicans on Election Day at the polls and mark a ballot.

Matheson said that while it's nice he leads Karras, it's too early to draw conclusions.

"The Republicans don't even have a nominee at this point," he said. "The important thing is that we take a message to all the voters that Utah has to do better, especially in the areas of education and economic development. And we will have a competitive dialogue on all of these issues."

Huntsman said it is significant that he's ahead of Matheson, and Karras is not. "It's important in terms of rallying registered Republicans. It says we are the most electable Republican against Matheson in November. And electability is always a central concern of this campaign."