Have you heard of Jon Huntsman?
If not, you should get familiar. Huntsman is the former Governor of Utah who was appointed by President Obama in 2009 to be Ambassador to China. He is well-liked by the people of his state, is intelligent, he can speak Mandarin, and he’s no policy slouch either. On top of that he’s quite handsome, good on television, and, somewhat of a moderate Republican. He’s also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon.
In other words, he’s nearly a clone of Mitt Romney, with some impressive foreign policy credentials to boot.
And he’s just announced that he’s resigning from his Ambassadorship effective in April, which has the chattering classes thinking that he’s prepping for a run for the Oval Office against his old boss in 2012.
If Huntsman runs, and assuming Mitt Romney does too, I’m forecasting the SCV to be a true battle-ground for the GOP/Mormon primary vote come winter 2012. Consider that we’ll have two prime, Grade A-certified, handsome, archetypal wholesome LDS men with broad support battling for California’s delegates and for the wallets of the SCV’s ruling class.
Think I’m exaggerating? In 2007 and early 2008, Romney fever swept through the SCV like one of our scary wildfires. It started in April with a fundraising visit by one of Romney’s sons, held in style in Placerita Canyon. But the main event would come a few weeks later in May, when Mitt Romney himself held a well-covered and high profile event in West Ridge where the SCV’s upper crust (Democrats too!) whipped out their checkbooks. The SCV was Phat City USA and everyone felt generous when I gossiped in 2007:
Hosted at a home in West Ridge and headlined by fellow Mormon Congressman Buck McKeon and his wife, participants in the event will pay $2,300 for an individual photo with the Mitt ($4,600 for a couple, what a steal!) and just $1,000 to have breakfast with him. The “Host Committee” on the invitation, obtained by SCVTalk, reads like the participant list in one of those fluff charity circuit pieces on KHTS or the Signal: local power lawyer Hunt Braly (I challenge you to find a more WASPish Republican name!), the Rasmussens, Flemings and several others are listed and will likely be at the breakfast meeting.
Of course the power breakfast got A-1 coverage in the Signal for like a week afterward, and Buck McKeon was soon named part of Mitt’s team. In spring 08 Romney followed up with another visit, but he was largely out of the race by then.
But now it’s 2011 and we are so ready for a new presidential election. And you know the only thing that’s better than having a Mitt Romney battle for the hearts of our Republican neighbors in town in a crowded Republican primary field? Why, having two Mitt Romneys battle for the hearts of our Republican neighbors in town in a crowded Republican primary field, of course!
Both men are vulnerable to charges that they aren’t conservative enough (Obama basically cloned Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan and applied it nationally, while Huntsman actually worked for, instead of against, his socialist boss in the White House) but both men have that certain je nais cest quois that’s attractive to the SCV’s establishment Republicans and the family values crowd.
I for one can’t wait. We’ll learn soon enough; the first GOP debate is in May at the Ronald Reagan Library!
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