Huntsman met the man she would marry while both were students at Highland High School. They went on one date, to a Hawaiian restaurant and a miniature golf course but were just friends for years.

Then they met again while she was attending Arizona State University and he was on an advance trip to plan an appearance by then-President Ronald Reagan. Within a year, they were married and today are the parents of six children, including a 5-year-old girl adopted in China.

Matheson had already earned her political science degree from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and was trying to decide whether to head to graduate school when she met her future spouse.

They were brought together when a mutual friend of both sets of parents, retired 3rd District Judge John Rokich, suggested she volunteer for what was the late Gov. Scott Matheson's first campaign — run by the candidate's son.

"It just took my life in a different turn," Matheson said. She went to work for the state's last Democratic governor after he was elected, helping to handle constituent complaints. Her interest in state politics was something of a revelation.

Her emphasis in college was international relations and comparative politics, although she had to take some classes in state and local American government. "They were kind of boring," Matheson said. "But working at it hands-on was just the greatest experience."

She describes herself as the "campaign mom" of this effort, looking after the young volunteers. "They're all around the same age I was when I worked on Scott's dad's first campaign," Matheson said, recalling how her husband's parents watched over her then.

Her main job, she said, has been being a mother to the couple's two children, who are now both in college. But she's also worked on numerous campaigns, including both of her brother-in-law's, Jim Matheson, successful runs for the 2nd Congressional District.

Both Huntsman and Matheson have volunteered over the years for a number of causes. When Huntsman's daughter, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with diabetes at 8, she came up with the idea of putting together kits to help other children in the same situation.

Huntsman has done the same kind of "heart-to-heart, kid-to-kid" project for children with cancer. Now she'd like to reach out to junior high school students, using high school students to warn them of the dangers of drugs, alcohol, depression, eating disorders and harassment.

The project will go forward, Huntsman said, whether or not her husband is elected governor Tuesday. "You have to do what you feel," she said. "That's just who I am. I have to be who I am."

Matheson has volunteered at organizations like Crossroads Urban Center and at her children's school. Her project, if she becomes first lady, would be one already proposed by her husband to provide books for first- and fourth-graders.

The role of first lady will be "whatever it ends up becoming," Matheson said. "I don't see myself being an activist to create more than what's there."

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E-mail: lisa@desnews.com