But a poll released last week demonstrates the disconnect between political insiders and the general public.

Republican activists, lobbyists, legislators and self-appointed VIPs have groused behind the scenes that the new governor is isolated and inaccessible.

Last week's poll, however, shows that more than 70 percent of Utahns polled approve of the governor's job so far, an indication of at least two political truths:

Political insiders who make a living cavorting with those in power are themselves often out of touch with the public.

Once Utahns elect a governor, they tend to form a love affair with him or her and are not easily inclined to quit on the relationship.

The last time Utah voters defeated an incumbent governor was in 1948, and that was when New Deal Democrat Herbert Maw, who never had the full support of his party, ran for a third term. He was defeated by conservative tax fighter J. Bracken Lee, who Maw had defeated in his first re-election bid in 1944.

The last time voters ousted a governor after just one term occurred more than 80 years ago, when Democrat George Dern in 1924 defeated Republican incumbent Charles Mabey, using the campaign slogan: "We need a Dern good governor and we don't mean Mabey."

Usually, when a governor has trouble with a re-election bid the problems are with political insiders from the governor's own party rather than from the voters.

Last year, Gov. Olene Walker, who rose to her rank through attrition when Gov. Mike Leavitt resigned to join George W. Bush's Cabinet, decided to run for the job in her own right. She was denied that opportunity by her own party, which ousted her in the Republican State Convention. But her approval ratings were in the 80s and many voters expressed outrage that they did not get an opportunity to vote for her.

When Lee, the feisty Republican libertarian type, ran for a third term in 1956, his party deprived him as well, deposing him in the GOP convention in favor of George Dewey Clyde, who went on to win the election.

But Lee's popularity with the public was strong and he got his revenge two years later by running for the U.S. Senate against fellow Republican, incumbent Arthur Watkins, who had been instrumental in thwarting Lee's quest for a third gubernatorial term.

Lee's presence on the ballot as an independent split the Republican vote and enabled Democrat Ted Moss to slide into the Senate during a time when Utah was a heavily Republican state.

Maw, when he first ran in 1940, had chilly relations with many insiders in his party because he was a Roosevelt New Dealer and the Utah Democrats were a relatively conservative lot. But Maw was popular with the public, so in 1938, two years before he ran for governor, he pushed through a bill as president of the State Senate that did away with the practice of nominating gubernatorial candidates at party conventions and replaced it with a direct primary nominating system.

That took the partisan insiders out of the process and Maw got the nomination through direct appeal to the public.

The direct primary nominating process, known as "Maw's Law," was later changed to a combination convention and primary system.

Calvin L. Rampton was elected in 1964 as part of the national Democratic landslide on the coattails of President Lyndon B. Johnson. When Rampton pushed for bonding to renovate and replace many of the crumbling buildings on university and college campuses, and the Legislature raised taxes, the Democrats in the House and the Senate were smoked by Republicans during the mid-term elections. But that anti-spending angst among voters did not hurt Rampton. He easily won a second term in 1968 and an unprecedented third term in 1972.

Democrat Scott Matheson proposed record tax increases in the early 1980s to resuscitate an underfunded education system, but he faced strong opposition from a Republican-dominated Legislature disinclined to raise taxes.

So Matheson launched a statewide speaking tour at the beginning of the legislative session to win public support. The public backed the governor rather than lawmakers and Matheson got most of what he wanted.

Even when Republican Gov. Norm Bangerter, who also raised taxes, seemed doomed for defeat when he ran for a second term in 1988, the magic of gubernatorial incumbency raised the phoenix. Bangerter's approval rating was in the 40s and he was more than 30 points down to Democratic challenger Ted Wilson at one point in the campaign.

But he won. And that should serve as a lesson to those recalcitrant Republicans who might be contemplating a coup when Huntsman runs for re-election in 2008.