Huntsmans' disunity on candidates is intriguing

Jon M. Huntsman Sr., a self-made billionaire, philanthropist, and patriarch of one of Utah's most powerful families, waxes philosophic in the letters he has written urging people to support former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts as the Republican nominee for president. "A defining moment for the future of our great country," Huntsman calls the 2008 election.

Huntsman's son, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., Utah's wildly popular governor, with a 77 percent approval rating in one recent poll, uses strikingly similar language in supporting Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"John McCain is a remarkable American hero who has experienced war, and in the post-9/11 period, what better kind of leader could we have than that?" Gov. Huntsman, a Republican, said in an interview. "If ever there was a time in our history when you need someone with his background, it would be now."

Elections? They come and go. But fathers and sons and dynasties are the stuff real dramas are made of, and in Utah the split between Huntsman Sr. and Huntsman Jr. has become the simmering back story of the campaign season.

"It does have a lot of people scratching their heads," said LaVarr Webb, a Republican political consultant in Salt Lake.

By most measures, Gov. Huntsman, who is 47 and two years into his first term, is the odd man out in cheering for McCain, at least in this state. Romney's father, George, the automobile industry executive and governor of Michigan, partly grew up here. Mitt Romney, many people here say, saved the scandal-plagued 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. The Romneys, like the Huntsmans, are Mormon in a state where membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominates the political culture.

"I refer to him as Utah's adopted son," said Lt. Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Romney supporter whose receptionist's desk is emblazoned with a bumper sticker that says, "I'm Smitten," with a line under the letters, "Mitt."

A poll last November by Dan Jones & Associates, a local polling firm, said Romney was supported by 44 percent of the state's residents, compared with 15 percent for McCain, who came in second. The poll of 416 registered voters had a margin of error of 5 percent.

Some residents, however they feel about the presidential race, said their opinion of the governor had gone up if only because he was tacking against such strong prevailing winds.

"I think he's shown some real independence," said Beth Whitsett, a 60-year-old lawyer and self-described "card-carrying Democrat." Whitsett said she favored Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in his bid for the Democratic nomination but liked her governor more than ever. "I was proud of his backbone."