He sits on a concrete wall with construction workers, chewing soft corn tortillas wrapped around beef and pork and chicken. The cart owners don't know who he is. Sometimes those in line do.

The governor says he has some of his best conversations on the busy corner in downtown Salt Lake City. It's one of the "everyman" charms about Huntsman that endears him to the public and helps smooth over the rough spots of his first six months in office. Halfway through his first year at the Utah helm, more than two-thirds of Utah voters approve of the job he is doing, according to a Salt Lake Tribune poll.

"He has a knack for reaching out to people," says Kelly Patterson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. "He hasn't done anything to alienate voters. He hasn't been involved in any major controversies. His overall press seems favorable. Voters can approve of that."

The governor swept into office promising to shake up state bureaucracy and generate more business to pay for bulging schools. From his determination to deliver his State of the State speech in Fillmore last January to his quiet visit to the Goshute band of Indians in Ibapah this month, Huntsman has deliberately set about scraping away traces of previous governors to put his mark on the office and the state. And so far, Utahns apparently like the Huntsman administration's work in progress, with nearly 73 percent of 400 voters surveyed giving him thumbs up.

Huntsman doesn't put much stock in the numbers.

"Momentarily, of course, I am gratified," he said. "But it's a snapshot in time. It's to be taken as a snapshot. Politics is a moving target."

And the 3 1/2 years to go in his term can be a political lifetime.

Former Gov. Cal Rampton says Huntsman is wise not to take his approval rating too seriously. In the spring of 1976, Rampton's approval rating hovered at 72 percent. Later that year, when he announced he would not be running for a fourth term, it shot up to 91 percent.

"Everyone wants him to do well," Rampton says. "But it's a little early."

Maggie Taylor is a case in point. The Salt Lake City west-side resident is more concerned about the cracks in her train-rattled house than Huntsman's performance. So far, she can't complain.

"I don't feel like he's been in office long enough for me to get angry or happy with him," Taylor says. "Nothing dramatic sticks out in my mind, pro or con. I would vote for him today."

The first six months for a governor are not easy. Huntsman faced off for the first time with state legislators, deflected complaints about his openness and weathered furors sparked by his abrupt remodeling of state government.

Lawmakers initially balked at Huntsman's plans to bus them to Fillmore, raising constitutional questions - a sort of warning shot before the 2005 Legislature. In response, Huntsman relied on the mandate evidenced by his 58 percent of the vote in the 2004 election to push his agenda.

A former diplomat, he strategically faded away during the session, letting lawmakers take the limelight. In the end, he persuaded lawmakers to restructure the Community and Economic Development Department and shovel $10 million into Utah tourism. He held the line on a 4.5 percent increase in per-student spending, salary increases for state employees and his Cabinet members and an incentive for math and science teachers. And he signed legislation banning hotter nuclear waste.

But lawmakers refused to sign off on his plan to do away with the corporate income tax. His support for tuition tax credits and a bill to give property inheritance rights and end-of-life decision-making power to unmarried couples didn't sway legislators.

"The first legislative session was certainly a learning experience," Huntsman says. "You're elected and then expected to produce a budget within two weeks, and then you're thrown into the vortex of the legislative session. I think we did very well, considering we were new- comers."

Away from Capitol Hill, Huntsman has several times visited St. George neighborhoods swept by floods. He proudly points to an agreement to move the Moab mill tailings near the banks of the Colorado River. He has joined talks to keep Hill Air Force Base off the Pentagon's closure list. In IbapahÂ, he pledged to find a few more teachers for the town's school so teenagers will not have to be bused to Wendover.

And this week, Utah's freshman governor distinguished himself at a meeting of the Western Governors Association in Breckinridge, Colo., co-sponsoring eight resolutions on issues ranging from open space to transportation of spent nuclear fuel rods. He moderated a round-table discussion about international business. Along with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, he is pushing the idea of a Western states primary.

Huntsman's global approach has earned him points with the home crowd as well. His decision to speak in Fillmore still resonates outside the Wasatch Front.

"We appreciate when he recognizes that people live south of Provo," says Glenna Bradshaw, a Beaver resident. "That shows that even though he comes from his business family, he knows we're alive down here."

Many lawmakers likewise give the governor high marks.

House Majority Whip Steve Urquhart credits Huntsman for the "courage" to quickly and quietly sign two controversial bills as soon as the session closed - one that cut a generous state employee retirement benefit and another that ended the state's practice of issuing driver licenses to undocumented immigrants.

"Every candidate says they're going to be tough and burn political capital, but he truly does it. It would have been easy for him to just sit back. He didn't do that," Urquhart says. "We get elected to govern and do things, not to tread water and look handsome while we do it. I get the sense that there's some urgency to Governor Huntsman."

That urgency doesn't sit well with everyone. Some characterize his style as aloof indifference to rank-and-file state workers, political appointees and the public alike. Huntsman's chief of staff and economic adviser fired more than 30 economic development workers in an effort to streamline the task of recruiting businesses. The state's top utility watchdog, Roger Ball, had half an hour to clean out his desk. Huntsman replaced him with a former phone company lobbyist. And citizen activists and state employee representatives have had limited access to the governor and his staff.

Government watchdog Claire Geddes says Huntsman has set himself up to be blamed for the fallout, particularly if utility rates go up.

"I don't think anybody will ever trust what the Committee on Consumer Services does again," Geddes says. "He's going to be the one in line to take responsibility when utility bills go up. No one's going to know if the increase is legitimate or not."

The governor has had to backtrack. After Ball's firing, Huntsman's staff scheduled two meetings with the committee in an apparent attempt to avoid the open meetings law. Both meetings were eventually canceled. He formed a living-wage task force after signing a bill that prohibits cities from giving preferential treatment to contractors who pay their workers higher wages. And he met with the Utah Public Employees Association only after the state workers' union threatened to sue the state.

Still, for now, Huntsman has a wealth of good will among voters. He benefits from a recovering economy and a growing state surplus. The governor is handsome and young. What's not to like, BYU's Patterson asks. Huntsman's measured response to his approval rating - astronomical in political terms according to Patterson - is probably wise.

"The chief executive gets credit for the good times. It's the spillover effect," Patterson says. "If things weren't going as well, he would be having to work harder. When times are good, incumbents benefit."

That could explain why 15 percent of those who didn't vote for Huntsman in 2004 - some of them Democrats - now apparently like his job performance. How they feel when they are in the voting booth in three years remains to be seen.

A brief look at Jon Huntsman Jr.'s first six months in office:

Jan. 4: Delivers first inauguration speech outside the Capitol in decades at Abravanel Hall.

Jan. 6: Chief of Staff Jason Chaffetz fires 33 state economic development employees.

Jan. 12: Tours flood-swept southern Utah neighborhoods and declares an emergency.

Jan. 14: Releases budget proposal.

Jan. 18: Moves State of the State pomp to Fillmore, historic seat of territorial government.

Feb. 25: Signs legislation banning hotter B and C nuclear waste.

March 1: Approves bill eliminating state workers' sick leave retirement benefit.

March 2: Gets mixed results from 2005 Legislature.

March 8: Signs bill cutting off driver licenses for illegal immigrants.

March 9: Utility watchdog Roger Ball is replaced with former phone company lobbyist.

May 10: State requests proposals to study the feasibility of moving Utah's prison, one of Huntsman's ideas to boost business.

May 23-May 31: Economic Adviser Chris Roybal says he will try to keep taxpayer-funded business incentives secret, then changes his mind.