Governor is running on borrowed cash

But even if he were to lose to Springmeyer — not likely, a June Deseret News poll by Dan Jones & Associates found the popular Huntsman ahead of Springmeyer 78-11 percent — Huntsman could pay off any debt himself.

Several years ago the governor divested his shares in the huge family business, Huntsman Chemical, the largest privately held chemical firm in the world. His spokesperson at the time said the governor was worth between $12 million and $15 million. The money is held in a blind trust, but Huntsman can withdraw funds as needed — he has several children in college, for example.

Roskelley said Wednesday the bank loans are unsecured, but the governor personally guarantees them. The interest rate fluctuates — it is currently 5.25 percent — and is set at 0.25 percent above the prime rate.

Roskelley said that Huntsman does plan to conduct heavy fundraising over the next two months. His main annual PAC fundraiser — the Governor's Gala — will be held this fall, before the election. "And the governor will continue fundraising through his next term," she said (anticipating a good election outcome for her boss), and can pay off any campaign debt with that money.

It is not now known how much more campaign money will come from the Zions Bank line of credit, aides say. As of his latest filing, his borrowed money makes up just over 15 percent of his 2008 campaign contributions. (Fifty-three percent comes from his own PAC, records show.) But if he hadn't taken $70,000 in new bank loans in June, and if he'd continued spending over the summer as he wished, his campaign would be $15,000 in the red. That's never a good thing for a campaign to do — looks bad on the finance reports.

To show Huntsman's ability to raise money — even though he has chosen not to fully pay off his loans — he has raised just under $2 million since he took office four years ago through his PAC, which is separate from his election committee. However, only about $286,000 of that PAC money has gone into his campaign account, which officially owed the $500,000 to the bank.

Instead of using it to pay off his line of credit or putting more into campaign spending, Huntsman has spent much of his PAC's money on fundraising, travel and even Christmas cards.

For example, since January 2007 he's spent $140,000 to use the Grand America hotel for his annual gala; at least $66,000 for entertainment at that gala; $9,200 for gifts given at that gala; about $35,000 on Christmas cards; more than $20,000 in donations to other politicians and party groups; and about $18,000 in travel by him and his staff.