Huntsman visits Bay area, believes record will win GOP voters

BRANDON Jon Huntsman is focusing on Florida more than other GOP presidential candidates, but his past moderate stands on issues from gay rights to economic stimulus raise questions about how he'll perform among the state's conservative Republicans.

A former Utah governor and Obama administration ambassador to China, Huntsman made his first campaign visit to the Tampa Bay area Saturday, meeting small crowds of party activists in Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough and Sarasota counties.

"This campaign is going to own the I-4 corridor," Huntsman told a group in Clearwater.

He told the GOP crowds the national debt is "a cancer growing on this country," and called for a balanced budget amendment, energy independence and "a new industrial revolution" as solutions.

While here, he came under attack from state Democrats, who accused him of backing what they called the "radical" Republican budget-cutting plan originated by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, which includes a controversial plan to revamp Medicare as a voucher plan for private insurance coverage.

"I was called a radical because I believe in balancing the budget," he said. "All I can say is guilty as charged."

But Democratic state Chairman Rod Smith also said Huntsman "has transformed himself from a moderate governor of Utah and a member of President (Barack) Obama's administration into just another in a string of Republican candidates who are pandering to the right wing."

Huntsman, who once referred to himself as a "moderating voice" in the Republican Party, faces a dilemma like that of many GOP candidates for federal offices: The party has shifted to the right, so some past issue stances no longer satisfy the base.

As Utah governor in 2009, Huntsman accepted economic stimulus money, and said in a 2009 Politico interview the Obama administration's $787 billion package should have been larger, up to $1 trillion.

His campaign noted that Huntsman said it should have included more business tax cuts, and also said, in an interview with the conservative Washington Times, that some of the spending would only add to government bloat.

In 2007, he pushed for a state health care initiative for universal coverage, and expressed support for an individual coverage mandate similar to the Obama plan and Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan. The state passed a plan without a mandate.

Huntsman "ultimately decided that a market-based plan was best for Utah," the campaign said.

In 2004, he backed a Utah constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, but later backed legislation to make clear that civil unions were legal. He was accused of switching positions, but his campaign said he has consistently opposed gay marriage and favored civil unions.

Under Huntsman in 2007, Utah joined states including California under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Western Climate Initiative, which sought to implement a cap-and-trade plan to cut carbon emissions and combat global warming.

Huntsman has said he accepts the consensus of climate scientists that global warming is real.

Huntsman backers say other former governors in the race have the same problems, and campaign spokesman Tim Miller said Huntsman is "the most accomplished and also the most conservative" compared to Romney and Tim Pawlenty.

Asked whether he can win over conservatives and tea party members, he responded, "I'm pro-life, I'm pro-Second Amendment, we had the largest tax cuts in the history of our state, I worked for President Reagan and President Bush" and helped win Forbes Magazine's most-business-friendly ranking, he said.

"I have every confidence we're going to win over a whole lot of the tea partiers."

Huntsman just resigned to run after a two-year stint in China. He was formerly a Reagan White House staffer, ambassador to Singapore under George H.W. Bush and a trade representative under George W. Bush.

But conservatives dominate both the Pasco and Hillsborough county parties, and some attendees said Huntsman's past stances could be a problem.

"I think he will struggle to gain a foothold here," said Robin Lankford, Hillsborough party secretary, who's undecided in the primary. "With the economy the way it is we want a president that going to focus on the economy and national defense, and not be sidetracked by other issues."

Pasco's Bill Bunting said other party activists are asking him whether Huntsman's record is too moderate. "I've got questions I want to ask him," Bunting said, "and if people ask him questions and don't get the right answers, he's going to have a problem."

Huntsman has said his early campaign strategy will focus on three states: New Hampshire and South Carolina, which have the first primaries, and Florida, where GOP leaders hope to have the next primary. He's de-emphasizing the intervening Iowa and Nevada caucuses.

"It will be a little bit like running a gubernatorial campaign simultaneously in three states," Huntsman has said.

So far, only Huntsman, Ron Paul and Herman Cain have committed to competing in the state party's Presidency 5 straw poll.

Huntsman has established his national headquarters in Orlando, and joked Saturday about his family connections in the I-4 corridor area Saturday – his wife is an Orlando native, and his daughter Abigail is married to Dunedin native Jeffrey Livingston.

In Florida, Huntsman faces a "closed" primary – only registered Republicans can vote, which means a conservative electorate with no independents or crossover Democrats.

"I don't think he's a good fit for the Republican base in any of the early states including Florida, a state that went for Rick Scott over Bill McCollum in the primary," said University of Central Florida political scientist Aubrey Jewett, who's politically neutral.

Iowa, Jewett noted, is famed for the conservatism of its caucus-goers; South Carolina also has a closed primary and a very conservative party.

Huntsman will have a more favorable climate in New Hampshire's open primary but must overcome Romney's domination of the state's political scene.

"It may come down to Florida making or breaking his chances, like Rudy Giuliani in 2008," Jewett said.

But retired University of South Florida political scientist Darryl Paulson, a Republican, said Scott's victory has caused some to overestimate the conservative influence on the Florida GOP.

He acknowledged Huntsman faces "a problem – he's placed himself to the left of where many Republicans probably see themselves."

But, he said, "There are a lot of Republicans out there who have been disaffected by national and state leadership, and are looking for somebody else," and Huntsman is "the unknown quantity, the kind of guy who may sneak up on people – like a Republican Obama."