PARK CITY — About the only difference between Utah's two major candidates for governor that surfaced during their first joint appearance Friday was the shade of their suit jackets.

Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. — who wore the lighter color — and Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. offered similar positions on the issues raised by the Utah Farm Bureau at its midyear conference in a ski resort hotel.

Each spoke of the importance of agriculture to the state and of the need to look out for the interests of the state's farmers and ranchers when making decisions about water rights and the use of public lands.

They agreed, for example, that the state's residents must make a better effort to conserve water. They share support for funding state purchases of open space. Ditto for marketing agricultural goods more aggressively, especially internationally.

Even the candidates acknowledged they sounded an awful lot alike Friday.

"I didn't see a lot of daylight (between us) today," Matheson said after the event. "On a lot of these issues . . . there aren't going to be a lot of partisan differences. There may be some differences in emphasis, but apart from that there's quite a bit of overlap in those answers."

Huntsman said "the differences are going to be based on priority." He said the thrust of his campaign is economic development, as opposed to Matheson's putting education at the top of his list.

The format was not a debate. Instead, it was a forum for Huntsman and Matheson to answer the same questions posed by a moderator in front of several hundred Farm Bureau members from around that state.

The candidates were provided with the questions in advance, as well as with several pages of background material, Farm Bureau vice president and chief financial officer Kim Frei said. He said the event was an opportunity for them to offer "bullet points" about some issues.

The bureau does not make endorsements, Frei said.

Hal Olsen, a Cache County dairyman, said he liked what he heard from both candidates. "I was impressed with both of them and their knowledge of what our concerns are," Olsen said. Any that separated the pair? "I didn't really see a lot," he said.

Still, Olsen said he intends to vote for Huntsman because he is more comfortable with conservatives. Politicians, he said, "tell you what they think you want to hear" in forums like this.

Jo Schmidt, a West Jordan farmer, said she usually votes Republican, too. But this election, she's undecided. Matheson, she said, "seems to be very aware of agricultural issues." Schmidt said she also liked that he "has had a little more experience on that Utah level."

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