Utahns approve of Huntsman's decision

Utahns overwhelmingly approve of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s decision to resign his office and become U.S. ambassador to China, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.

And while three-fourths say Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert is qualified to be governor, pollster Dan Jones & Associates found that most Utahns couldn't even name Herbert as lieutenant governor.

So it is clear that Herbert, who will become acting governor as Huntsman prepares for his U.S. Senate confirmation hearings, needs to get himself known to his constituents.

In a survey conducted Monday of 301 adults (with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percent), Jones found that 79 percent of Utahns approve of Huntsman's decision to leave Utah for China.

Democratic President Barack Obama asked Utahns to forgive him for taking the popular Huntsman away.

While citizens of one of the reddest states in nation may not forgive Obama, they clearly have forgiven Huntsman for leaving only four months into his second, four-year term.

Rarely does Jones find an 80 percent approval rating on any critical issue of the day.

And since only 42 percent of Utahns correctly named Herbert as lieutenant governor — but 48 percent approve of the job he's doing in that post and 73 percent say Herbert is qualified to be governor — it is clear that Utahns accept Huntsman's assertion that Herbert is ready and able to be chief executive.

Lieutenant governors slug away at their jobs mostly in anonymity, waiting, if you will, to step up if called upon.

Utah had not had to call upon a second-in-command before 2003. That is when then-Lt. Gov. Olene Walker (Utah's first female governor) stepped into former Gov. Mike Leavitt's office when Leavitt accepted then-President George W. Bush's offer to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, Walker, a known moderate, failed to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2004, losing in the state Republican convention.

Herbert, considered a conservative, will try next year to break that losing streak.

He has already said he will run in a special gubernatorial election in 2010. And should he win, Herbert says he will run for his own four-year term in 2012.

But Jones' poll shows Herbert clearly has some work to do with the Utah electorate before next year.

Fifty-four percent of Utahns couldn't name Herbert as lieutenant governor, even though he has twice been on the ballot with Huntsman and has been either a candidate or in statewide office for five years.

Oddly enough, 60 percent of Republicans couldn't name Herbert as lieutenant governor — even though Herbert has attended GOP county conventions, been the administration's point man in dealing with local governments and headed up Huntsman's rural initiatives.