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Layton • It's premature to predict a Republican nominee in the 2012 presidential race, but of the two Utah favorite sons who could be in the hunt, GOP strategist Karl Rove gives Mitt Romney an edge over Jon Huntsman Jr.
"You'd have to say that Romney, of the two, has the advantage, having run before and built a network around the country. But it's early, and who knows?" said Rove, a political adviser to former President George W. Bush, to The Salt Lake Tribune before delivering the keynote speech Thursday night at a Davis County Republican fundraiser.
He also acknowledged that some have raised questions about Huntsman's credentials in an increasingly conservative Republican Party, but he said the concerns aren't a deal killer.
"It depends on what he emphasizes during the campaign," Rove said of Huntsman. "Everybody has a challenge. His is that he left the governorship of Utah to become the ambassador to China, appointed by President Barack Obama. That raises questions, in some people's minds, as to why you go off to China to serve your country at the behest of President Obama and then try to turn around and run against him."
Huntsman has submitted his resignation after nearly two years in the ambassador's post, fueling speculation about a possible White House bid.
Huntsman and Romney both have strong ties to Utah. While Huntsman was twice elected governor in the Beehive State, Romney headed the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, using his Olympics success as a springboard to the governor's mansion in Massachusetts. Also, both are members of the LDS Church.
Romney addressed questions about his faith head-on in the 2008 presidential election, embracing the Salt Lake City-based church that claims 14 million members. Huntsman, however, has been more ambiguous. In an interview with Forbes last year, he said he wasn't "overly religious" and noted that he derives satisfaction from several religions and philosophies.
Rove, an Anglican who attended high school in Utah, believes the Mormon issue was overblown in 2008 and doesn't think it will be much of a factor in 2012.
"This makes me queasy," he said of the close scrutiny the LDS religion got during Romney's candidacy.
"I think people do want to know what motivates any candidate for president, so they want to know what their faith is. But there's a difference between wanting to identify someone's faith and come to some sense about their authenticity and what happened to Romney, which was look at his faith and 'let's examine its tenets and hold them up for public scrutiny,' " he said. "It just makes me queasy."