A newly formed group claiming environmentalist motives denounced Republican gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. on Monday, citing illness allegedly caused by petrochemical plants his family owns in Texas.

The Huntsman campaign dismissed the criticism, which came just eight days before the election, as "grandstanding." Nobody working for his Democratic opponent, Scott Matheson Jr., "knows anything about this at all," a Matheson spokeswoman said.

The news conference, organized by a new group calling itself Concerned Utahns for a Healthy Future, featured a lawyer representing plaintiffs in environmental suits and a family from Port Neches, Texas, whose young daughter has asthma.

Craig Axford, the group's spokesman, said he was not trying to hold the GOP candidate personally responsible for the claimed pollution. But he said Huntsman's campaign was taking about 10 percent of its contributions from the family business and thousands more from other Texas companies.

"My connection is where the campaign donations are coming from," he said. In light of that, he said, the group would tell the gubernatorial candidate "that we deserve assurances that he is going to stand solidly for a clean environment here in Utah. With so much of the campaign funding coming from family, Axford said "it is reasonable to ask that our (would-be) governor stand up to his family and say, 'You know, we have created a mess down in southeast Texas and we need to make amends' — whether he's responsible or not. He's taken their money in significant amounts."

Axford, however, refused to identify who the prominent Utahn was who paid to bring the news conference participants from Texas. He said the person's identity would not be made public until today, when the group files with the state as a political action committee.

He said the group had no ties to Matheson's campaign. Asked whether there was any involvement with the Democratic Party, Axford replied, "Have we talked? Yes. But not about this event." He said there was "no collaboration."

Jeff Morrison said his 18-month-old daughter, Kaylee Morrison, has been hospitalized four times since May of this year for asthma. "She can't go to the park. She can't even play in her own back yard" because of the poor air quality in Port Neches, he said.

Morrison said he wouldn't elect Huntsman "dog catcher in southeast Texas. He's poisoned the air in my neighborhood and I don't think you should let him poison yours."

The family's lawyer, Tom Pearson, enumerated a long litany of complaints about the company's petrochemical plants in Texas, including releases of dangerous chemicals and violations of federal and state regulations.