Most Utahns still love Gov. Huntsman

Utahns are just crazy about Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

Really. They love him.

An impressive 86 percent of Utahns approve of the job Huntsman, a Republican, is doing as governor, found a new survey conducted for the Deseret News and KSL-TV.

And if Huntsman ever wants to run for another office in this state he has a leg up on any competition — two-thirds say they would vote for him again, the new poll by Dan Jones & Associates shows.

And three-fourths say Huntsman is leaving Utah a better place than when he stepped into office January 2005, an interestingly high number considering the state has gone through tough budget cuts the past 12 months because of the global recession.

Huntsman leaves Utah next week to become U.S. ambassador to China.

It's natural for citizens to feel good about an outgoing officeholder. And Utahns have traditionally really liked their governors. Those factors combine for the high rating in the latest survey.

Only 8 percent of Utahns strongly or somewhat disapprove of Huntsman as governor. Just 6 percent didn't have an opinion, Jones found in a poll of 402 adults interviewed last week. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

Huntsman hasn't said what his plans are after he leaves his China post.

It was clear he was moving on to the national political stage this spring, after the devastating defeats by Republicans in the 2008 elections opened the way for new, moderate voices in the GOP.

Now, however, he will be completely out of politics as an ambassador.

Still, Jones found that 63 percent of Utahns say they would vote for him again for public office, if given the chance.

Clearly, Huntsman would have a head start in running for the U.S. Senate in 2012 or beyond, although he has consistently refused to discuss any future political ambitions.

Even though so many Utahns approve of the job Huntsman has been doing, they also think it was right that he accept President Barack Obama's request to be an ambassador.

Eighty-seven percent strongly or somewhat approve of Huntsman's decision to leave office just seven months into his second four-year term. A May poll for the newspaper and TV station found then that 79 percent approved of Huntsman's decision to leave.

He clearly ran as a conservative, in 2004 and 2008.

However, Jones' polling shows that many Utahns don't see him that way now.

Forty-four percent of Utahns believe that Huntsman has been, in political philosophy, a moderate.

Thirty-six percent say he's been somewhat conservative, while only five percent say he has been very conservative.