This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In 1993, after a Republican had won Utah's gubernatorial race for the third time in a row, a group of prominent Democrats met with Jon Huntsman Jr. to explore his willingness to change parties and run for governor in 1996 as a Democrat.
Huntsman's billionaire philanthropist father, Jon Sr., had flirted five years earlier with running for governor as a Republican. The son had been an ambassador to Singapore for GOP President George H.W. Bush and had worked in the Reagan White House. But he said at the time he was flattered to be wooed by the Democrats.
He told me there were many principles the Democrats held that he agreed with, "but if I became a Democrat, my family would disown me."
Still, he agreed to be the keynote speaker at one of the most prominent Democratic Party events of the year — the Eleanor Roosevelt luncheon catering to about 500 guests. Former First Lady Norma Matheson received the Eleanor Roosevelt Woman of the Year award that year and was seated at a front table with Huntsman and her son, Scott Matheson Jr., who would lose to Huntsman 11 years later in the 2004 gubernatorial race.
Huntsman was also working closely with several Democrats and Republicans as chair of Envision Utah, a public-private partnership engaged in promoting quality growth in the state.
He applied principles from that organization when he became governor. It was a model for the Commission on Strengthening Democracy he created in his first term.
His accomplishments as governor included the passage of the largest tax decrease in state history and drastically reforming Utah's quirky liquor laws.
Those feats would contribute to his better than 80 percent approval rating among Utah voters. But by the time he resigned to become President Barack Obama's ambassador to China, it was clear that if he ran for office in Utah again, he wouldn't be able to get past the Republican State Convention.
He said as much when he agreed to write an endorsement for Democrat County Council candidate Jani Iwamoto in 2008. While endorsing a Democrat is a mortal sin among some Republican purists in the state, Huntsman told Iwamoto supporters he wouldn't be running for office in Utah again, so it didn't matter. It was more important to follow his conscience.
He simultaneously impressed most Utahns while angering the Republican base by expressing moderate views on climate change, land issues and gay rights.
When he chose to run for president this year, his supporters said that as the one moderate in a Republican field of candidates wooing the tea party by clinging to the far right on most issues, he would stand out and eventually be rewarded as the most reasonable Republican in the race.
He has stood out in the Republican debates and, arguably, has been the most reasonable among candidates, earning praise from national political media pundits. But it hasn't done him any good. He underestimated just how imbalanced and entrenched in right-wing rhetoric the base of the GOP has become.
This is not his father's Republican Party.
Huntsman may have run this year to position himself as the winnable candidate for 2016, when there will be no incumbent, assuming Obama wins re-election this year. But the fact is, he continues to lag in the polls while mostly discredited candidates like Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and even Donald Trump had their moments seducing the Republican faithful.
Even Newt Gingrich had his turn as the anyone-other-than-Mitt Romney flavor of the week, while Huntsman can't seem to get a sniff.
Had he taken the offer and become a Democrat nearly 20 years ago, chances are he never would have become governor because even though he would have been the same person who won the race in 2004 and again in 2008, he would have had the wrong capital letter next to his name on the ballot.
But at least he would have been appreciated by his party.