Utah GOP is wild about Gary

Some Utah GOP conservatives are already jumping on the Gary Herbert political bandwagon and asking that no other conservative Republicans challenge Herbert for the GOP gubernatorial nomination next year.

And Herbert will have a leg-up with the 2,500 or so state GOP delegates in 2010 — the first hurdle for any Republican candidate — because of his extensive grass-roots party work, a potential party leader says.

But a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones & Associates finds that only one-third of Utahns say now that Herbert should be the GOP gubernatorial nominee for the 2010 elections, held to fill out the remainder of GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman's term. Jones found that 36 percent say it's time to find another Republican candidate and a fourth of Utahns don't know.

Meanwhile, Utah Democratic Party leaders are hoping that Lt. Gov. Herbert, who will become governor when Huntsman resigns after being confirmed as U.S. ambassador to China, stays to the political right.

A conservative Herbert is a "great opportunity for us" in the 2010 gubernatorial race, says Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party.

"If (Herbert) stays where he is ideologically, Utahns will get a much better picture of what the Utah GOP looks like to most Americans," said Taylor.

Indeed, Jones' survey of 301 adults taken Monday, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percent, shows that Utahns are at least willing to consider a Democrat for governor next year. Jones found that 47 percent definitely or probably believe a Democrat can win in 2010, while 45 percent don't think Utah is ready for a Democratic governor. Eight percent didn't know. Utahns last elected a Democratic governor in 1980.

Some conservatives are ready to back Herbert, even this early. Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, who on Wednesday will announce a new multistate conservative states rights movement, told the Deseret News: "Utah deserves a real conservative governor — which is where most Utahns are anyway."

And unlike the last three GOP governors — Huntsman, Olene Walker and Mike Leavitt — Herbert can and should be that conservative governor, said Wimmer, a former police officer and one of the more conservative members of the Legislature.