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By Monday afternoon this is, of course, old news but if you visited here you must have been at least marginally interested in my opinion on the fallout from Huntsman being tapped to become the ambassador to China. First of all, I think that Bob Bernick captured the essence of the Big Utah Political Picture especially in the following sections:
Now 2010 in Utah is wide open.
Now there is an open governor’s race with a one-year incumbent . . .
There is also U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, facing an intra-party challenger {or two}.
Adding to the mix will be the off-cycle governor’s race in 2010. Because Huntsman is leaving so early in his second term, Herbert must run again in 2010, the eventual winner serving only two years before he or she must run again in 2012.
That puts next year’s governor’s race off schedule — and incumbents like Attorney General Mark Shurtleff can seek the higher office without having to give up his current post. That’s also the case for Democrats Corroon and Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker — all who can run for governor without risking their current seats.
And there’s a few state senators who just won re-election to their four-year seats in 2008 and so can run for governor or U.S. Senate next year without risking their current offices, as well.
. . .
2010 is suddenly a once-in-a-generation opportunity for many current and wanna-be Utah politicians.
So there’s the big picture. We’ll be holding two elections for Governor by 2012 and that Governor’s seat in 2010 added to Bennett’s seat in the Senate makes for a lot of opportunities for those (especially senators) who are not facing re-election in 2010 to take a shot at moving up in Utah politics.
Now for my opinion on the Huntsman move in particular.
In my very first political blog post I said of Huntsman:
I have spent months looking at everything I could find on the candidates and so far as I can tell the least promising republican candidate just won the republican primary
In all fairness I have to say that Huntsman exceeded my expectations as a Governor (which is why I suggested that he would be an improvement over Hatch in 2012). I like him better for some of the reasons that others dislike him, and dislike him for some of the reasons that others dislike him. Plus I still dislike him for most of the reasons I didn’t like him to begin with. So you can safely guess that I’m not sad to see him leaving. In fact, I believe that he is very well qualified to be our ambassador to China and I have high hopes that he will fill that post well.
Beyond being not sad to see Huntsman leaving I am very happy that he will be vacating the Governors seat officially because it’s been months since he left me with the impression that he was doing any more there than keeping the seat warm. If there is any way to leverage this political confusion to oust Bennett from his seat in 2010 so much the better but simply based on the fact that Huntsman had already moved on mentally from his position as governor I happily wish him well in his future endeavors and hope that Herbert and our future governors spend the bulk of their time in office proving that they are working for Utah more than for their personal political futures.