Huntsman aide to resign

Jason Chaffetz, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s chief of staff, will leave his job next month to re-enter private business, Chaffetz said Monday.

Huntsman said Neil Ashdown, the current deputy chief of staff, will replace Chaffetz.

Chaffetz is perhaps the first casualty of an administration that had little experience in state government when Huntsman took office last January.

Chaffetz, 38, said he may restart a sales and marketing firm — Maxtera — that he'd operated previously with his brother, or he may take a management position in private business.

Rumors of Chaffetz's departure started last week after Chaffetz interviewed with several top firms. Chaffetz said he decided to talk about it publicly this week.

There was no specific occurrence or incident that caused him to leave, Chaffetz said, except that he wants to earn more money and spend more time with his young family — he has three children.

"As we all know, being chief of staff is a 365-day-a-year job," he said.

Chaffetz also took a bad spill from a ladder earlier this year, and rehabilitation on his injured heel is painful and lengthy, he said.

In a release, Huntsman said: "Jason is a friend and has worked hard over the past two years on my campaign as campaign manager and through the transition into office. We wish him well and support him as he begins this next pursuit in his life."

Huntsman spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi said: "From my understanding, both the governor and (Chaffetz) thought it was time for a change."

"The chief of staff always takes the first political bullet in any situation," said Roger Tew, a longtime state observer who has worked in the legislative and executive branches of state government and is now a lobbyist.

Other state watchers said there had been grumbling by some department heads that Chaffetz was excessively restricting access to Huntsman. Several department heads had reportedly gone to Huntsman and asked that they be allowed to report through Ashdown instead of Chaffetz.

But the job of chief of staff is always a tough one, with turnover coming every several years, several observers said.

"They can come and go fairly quickly," said LaVarr Webb, a top aide to former Gov. Mike Leavitt, now a lobbyist and political commentator who co-writes a column for the Deseret Morning News. "Jason is a good guy, a capable young man, although he was relatively inexperienced in state government and even politics."

Historically, new governors pick old hands as their first chiefs of staff to help guide them through the shoals.