6 gubernatorial candidates chide Huntsman on debates

Call it a misunderstanding or a miscommunication, but it's still the first major tiff of Utah's gubernatorial race.

Six candidates for governor teamed up to chide fellow gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. Thursday afternoon in response to a press release he issued that morning.

The press release in question "challenged the other Republican candidates to a series of six scheduled debates."

"The most important thing we will do in this election is debate the issues," Huntsman was quoted in the release.

It then listed six debates planned between March 25 and April 23 for the candidates.

"We are concerned that Huntsman has distorted the facts on this issue, and attempted to take credit for 'opening the doors of communication' among the gubernatorial candidates," the counter press release stated. "We view this as an unwarranted attempt for publicity, as well as an attempt to exploit the media to further Huntsman's personal campaign message. As fellow candidates, we hope that Huntsman will not resort to utilizing methods of political grandstanding in the future," an excerpt from the one-page joint release said.

The joint press release was signed by Jim Hansen, Parley Hellewell, Gary Herbert, Nolan Karras, Fred Lampropoulos and Marty Stephens.

"We weren't accusing anybody," Jason Chaffetz, Huntsman's campaign manager said, explaining that the original Huntsman release referred to "a series of six scheduled debates."

"We never laid claim to arranging these events," he said.

Utah has an unusually large number of candidates for governor — 11, counting two independent candidates — and this tussle is the first sign that things are heating up.

The first gubernatorial debate is Thursday, March 25, 7 p.m., at the Provo City Library in Academy Square. Eight of the candidates politely discussed their views and answered questions Wednesday in Ogden at a "Meet the Candidates" night.

Besides the candidates who signed the release, Gov. Olene Walker, Richard Mack, Ken Larsen and Scott Matheson Jr. are the others running for governor.

---

E-mail: lynn@desnews.com