Huntsman team is set for the game

It was late Wednesday afternoon, the day after the big day, when I walked unannounced into the Huntsman for Governor campaign headquarters. Jon Huntsman Jr., the man who would be Utah's next governor, had beaten Nolan Karras in the Tuesday Republican primary, earning the right to face the Democratic nominee, Scott Matheson Jr., in this fall's Final Two. I wanted to see how a political campaign handles prosperity in the middle of the battle. Would they be popping Martinelli's after trouncing Karras? Would they all be sitting around watching Robert Redford in "The Candidate"? Would anyone actually be there?

What do you do when you've won a big one, but you've still got the big one to go?

The answer came soon enough when Jason Chaffetz excused himself from a strategy meeting that included Huntsman, running mate Gary Herbert and several others, so he could speak to a former sports writer. Namely, me.

Jason is Huntsman's campaign manager. He sent him an e-mail indicating his interest in meeting him and possibly working on his campaign the day Huntsman first announced he was considering a run for governor — Sept. 11, 2001.

"I will never forget that day," said Jason. "I guess nobody will."

But for Jason it was bad news, good news, because Huntsman e-mailed him back, they had lunch, and almost three years and a couple of promotions later, Jason Chaffetz is steering the Huntsman express.

The campaign manager reached into his past to find an analogy to describe the current situation.

"We played a good game and had a good win," he said of Tuesday's triumph, "but now comes the bowl game, and no matter how good your season was, you gotta win the bowl game because that's what they judge you on."

Before he was a political operative, Jason Chaffetz was a place-kicker for the BYU football team. In 1988 and 1989 he played for the Cougars. Both years, they went to bowl games. They won the 1988 Freedom Bowl over Colorado on a game-winning 35-yard field goal by Chaffetz. The next year they lost to Penn State in the Holiday Bowl.