Former Gov. Norm Bangerter picked the director of one of the legislative staff offices; Leavitt picked Bangerter's budget director; former Gov. Olene Walker picked Leavitt's legal counsel: All three new chiefs of staff knew the ins and outs of the state bureaucracy and politics.

While it may not be the case in this administration, Tew said there are always questions — push and shove — over who is the second in command of any administration: "Is it the lieutenant governor or is it the chief of staff?"

Chaffetz was a NuSkin executive before getting involved in Huntsman's gubernatorial campaign in the summer of 2003. He was quickly promoted to campaign manager. And after Huntsman won, Chaffetz was named his chief of staff.

"He was a political guy. And it is always debatable whether you make your top political guy your chief of staff," said Tew, who said as the chief lobbyist for the Utah League of Cities and Towns, he only had good dealings with Chaffetz.

Huntsman has made few purely political missteps in his first nine months in office. He has a high job approval rating in various polls.

But over the summer, a number of political watchers noted it appeared the new Huntsman administration was not getting off to a fast start.

"The nature of this job is that you are the chief spear catcher," Chaffetz said. "But it never really bothered me to take the heat for the governor."

Record state tax revenues have made governing relatively easy. And Huntsman recently oversaw a settlement that will allow the Legacy Parkway to proceed without further worries over legal action.

Huntsman just last week unveiled his plan for income tax reform.

But there are big challenges ahead, including rebuilding a number of freeways, finding new water sources in southern Utah and managing an education system that will see 150,000 new children enrolled over the next few years.

Chaffetz, a Republican, briefly considered this summer challenging U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in the 2nd Congressional District. But he took himself out of that race even before he got in, saying at the time, "I have the most exciting job in the state."

He's still not planning on running against Matheson next year, Chaffetz said Monday.

"But you keep your options open for the future in politics," he said.

Chaffetz said he simply "decided to make some money." As Huntsman's campaign manager all through 2004 he was making $4,000 a month.

His chief of staff job pays more than $115,000 a year, but even that "was considerably less than I was making in the private sector" with NuSkin, he said. Earlier this summer, one of Huntsman's newly appointed department heads resigned, saying his state salary was too low.

Ashdown has recently had a higher profile, filling in for Chaffetz during his foot injury recovery and being named by Huntsman to the Tax Reform Task Force — which was in the news this summer as its 15 members plowed through extensive tax reform issues.

Ashdown served as both Leavitt's and Walker's chief economist in the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. He holds a doctorate in political science/international economics from the State University of New York, Albany, and a master's of public administration and bachelor's degrees from the University of Utah.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com