Huntsman's PAC bag light

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. clearly believes he can raise $2 million or $3 million without much trouble for his re-election next year.

New political-action committee filings show the governor's PAC has only raised around $200,000 this year, and he already has spent nearly all of it.

Huntsman said he will set up a campaign organization with a fund-raising arm by the end of the year "and be ready to go" in early 2008.

"There will be a November gala where our aim is to retire the last debt from the last campaign — about $300,000," said Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley. That $300,000 is actually a line of credit at Zions Bank, where Huntsman has a number of supporters.

Campaigns are too long and too expensive, said Huntsman, who added he was surprised that he ended up spending $3.5 million on his first run for public office in 2004. "I look forward to the campaign, to meeting people. And if they like what I've done, maybe they will keep me" for another term, he said.

Huntsman's Special Initiatives Office PAC filing shows that Huntsman has a few very good friends — individuals and businesses that gave him $10,000 a pop.

While Huntsman declined to take any PAC contributions in his 2004 initial campaign, saying he wanted to keep special interest money out of his race and conflicts with state operations, his PAC has accepted such special-interest money since then.

His PAC filing shows he accepted a $10,000 contribution from the Utah Association of Realtors, one of the largest political-action committees in the state.

"There is actually a difference" in internal fund-raising controls "between the campaign and PAC accounts," Roskelley said. "And the realtors actually are not greatly regulated by the state," so there is less of a conflict there, she added.

Still, the PAC has donated just over $31,000 to the campaign account this year, new filings show.

Huntsman said his campaign next year will adhere to what he has asked the Legislature for: a $10,000 individual donation limit for statewide office, like the governor's.

"I also want more disclosure" of campaign contributions, he said.

Huntsman has only $61,000 in cash in his PAC account. His old campaign account still has $380,000 in cash as of last January, the last reporting period.

As with his PAC, Huntsman raised and spent about the same amount of money in his campaign account last year. He spent about $250,000 from his campaign account in 2006, while raising around $250,000.