Huntsman likes job — and Utahns like job he's doing

Every politician likes to see himself as a man of the people.

But Utah's new governor rides motorcycles and has even posed on one, wearing a suit, for a magazine cover. He has the Ramones on his iPod, and he frequents greasy-spoons where fellow cheeseburger-eaters wonder if that guy in the booth really is the state's top officeholder.

Six months into the job, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. sounds almost surprised at how much he's enjoying himself in his first elected office — especially around his constituents.

"In this job, you really deal with issues that affect people," Huntsman said. "They feel whether what you're doing is decent and honorable. And they let you know that on the street. I like that. . . . There's a connection there with people that I find very, very satisfying."

He may have some gray hair at the temples, but he's also trying to be hip. While other governors have had local jazz or country bands play at their fund-raisers, Huntsman is planning an August bash featuring James Taylor.

But all has not gone smoothly for Huntsman early on in his first four-year term.

In a number of interviews conducted by the newspaper, politicos say Huntsman did reasonably well in the 2005 Legislature, although GOP leaders started a new way of passing the budget that could, in the future, reduce a governor's line-item veto power.

He came into office with a relatively inexperienced top staff, and at times, that is evident.

It's probably too soon to tell if he'll deliver on some of his campaign promises, such as identifying waste in government. That work is being left up to the group that helped Huntsman with his transition. So far, they've yet to make a public report.

Plans for ethics reform, now focused on the executive branch, also have yet to fully materialize. For example, the governor's office does not have a written policy on gifts, although Huntsman said staffers know they must pay for anything they choose to keep.

While a few voices are complaining about Huntsman, saying he used heavy-handed, private-business tactics in firing 33 state economic advisers and canning the state's citizen-advocate for public utilities, the general public does like Huntsman.

A new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones & Associates shows that 75 percent of Utahns strongly or somewhat approve of the job Huntsman is doing as governor. That's a higher approval rating in Utah than either President Bush or Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

The son of a billionaire philanthropist, Huntsman has made a point of showing Utahns he has down-to-earth tastes.

That, the governor suggested during a recent wide-ranging interview with the Deseret Morning News, is how the electorate sees him, not as a wealthy businessman or former diplomat.