Washington • If Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. jump into the 2012 presidential race as expected, Utah Republicans would face a difficult choice.

But it's one Sen. Orrin Hatch has apparently already made.

Hatch would back Romney, who led the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, over Huntsman, the state's former governor and current U.S. ambassador to China. The senator first made the comments to The Herald Journal in Logan on Friday and reiterated them Saturday.

"I like both Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. very much. But long ago I made a commitment to Mitt to support him and I intend to keep my commitment," Hatch said. "Mitt is a great candidate and brings a wealth of business and leadership experience with him at a time so critical to our country."

Hatch becomes the most prominent politician in Utah to definitively pick a side in the wide-open Republican contest that could pit the two Mormons with deep Utah ties against each other.

Gov. Gary Herbert has also hinted that he favors Romney, saying he supported him in the past and encourages him to run again, but Republiican Herbert hasn't closed the door on supporting Huntsman.

Both figures have been wildly popular with Utah voters. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, claimed 90 percent of the vote in Utah's 2008 presidential primary, while Huntsman won his second term as governor that same year with a record 77 percent.

A head-to-head Deseret News poll in February found that Utah voters favored Romney over Huntsman by a margin of 56 percent to 26 percent.

Romney hasn't announced his candidacy but has actively campaigned in early primary states for months and is largely seen as the early front-runner in a race, which could include big-name Republicans such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.

Huntsman has surfaced as a potential candidate much more recently. He plans to leave his ambassadorship at the end of April, and those close to him have started a political action committee called Horizon PAC, which they describe as Huntsman's campaign-in-waiting. mcanham@sltrib.com