Florida Agenda

CLIFF DUNN

Every four years, the American tribe engages in the Rite of Democracy known as the presidential preference primary. (Five states, Idaho, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, and Washington State’s Democratic–but not Republican—Party, hold caucuses.) I find this ritual somewhat distasteful, as it’s another excuse for Americans to break up into our component parts, focusing on the differences between us rather than the things which unite and unify us.

This week, Florida’s Republican voters selected Mitt Romney as their choice to challenge President Barack Obama in the fall.

The Democrats have been spared the almost fetish-like ceremonial Eating-of-One’s-Own-Young this time out by virtue of Obama’s uncontested re-nomination. But for now, we are treated to the spectacle of the Grand Old Party of Lincoln and American statesmen like Everett Dirksen, Robert A. Taft, and Barry Goldwater, going picnicking on its own, with Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul locked in a contest of Who-Can-Commit-The-Worst-Atrocity in the service of getting to do unto Obama in much the same fashion come this November. At times like these, I wonder if any of the Revered 2,977 Victims who fell to their deaths on 9/11 wondered if the unfortunate person who was plummeting beside him was a Democrat or Independent, Liberal or Tea Party-er.

Although I am not eligible to vote in the Republican primary (I hold no party affiliation, although I tend to skew left in the Sensible Center), I was hopeful for the candidacy of Jon Huntsman, Jr., Utah’s former governor and America’s Obama-appointed ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011.

There are some things I find noteworthy about the 51-year-old Huntsman, much of it having to do with his relationship to his faith and upbringing. Huntsman is a Latter-day Saint or Mormon, but he’s not what members of that faith call a “Utah Mormon,” which has a negative connotation when made by Latter-day Saints from elsewhere in the country, and refers to a parochial mindset and provincial ideas. Huntsman was born in California, a polyglot, open-minded part of the country (excepting, perhaps, for Orange County), and attended the University of Utah, which is considered the more secular of the Beehive State’s institutions of higher  learning, as compared to its vastly more conservative rival, the Mormon Church-owned Brigham Young University (BYU). After attending the “U,” Huntsman transferred to the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, another place he would be exposed to “big ideas.” (His distant cousin, Mitt Romney, attended Harvard, another “big idea” school.)

Although he dutifully served a Mormon mission in Taiwan for two years–Huntsman’s father, Jon, Sr., whom Glenn Beck praised as “the only man I have ever met that I believe has the character of George Washington,” is a billionaire philanthropist and well-placed member of the Mormon hierarchy—the former ambassador professes an almost New Age theology. In a May 2011 interview with “Time” magazine, Huntsman was more cagey than a stripper in church (pardon the metaphor) about his standing with the LDS Church (“I’m a very spiritual person,” as opposed to a religious one, he says, “and proud of my Mormon roots.” Roots? That makes it sound as if you’re not a member anymore. Are you? “That’s tough to define,” he says. “There are varying degrees. I come from a long line of saloon keepers and proselytizers, and I draw from both sides.”). That one so cagey as to be worthy of Bill Clinton. Or Abraham Lincoln.

On LGBT rights, Huntsman deeply contrasted with both party and church positions. Quoting a Huntsman spokesman last June, The Daily Beast reported that “Gov. Huntsman has long been supportive of civil unions. His position on that issue is the same as President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.”

That article noted that “in 2004 Bush said the GOP was wrong to oppose same-sex civil unions and that it was up the states to decide how best to move forward. But he didn’t push for gay rights, as Huntsman eventually did.”

Although as a candidate for governor, Huntsman supported Utah’s 2004 constitutional amendment which forbids same-marriage, he supported the 2009 initiative permitting civil unions, in spite of overwhelming opposition from his party and from within his church.

While governor, Huntsman, who supports Second Amendment (gun ownership) rights, and opposes abortion rights, shepherded a legislative agenda that was worthy of the most cranky Tea Party member, including creating jobs while at the same time cutting taxes. Here’s someone who could have appealed to several camps at once, a—and I’m almost embarrassed to use the word—unifier. Sadly, that just doesn’t play well today in Iowa. Or Florida.

Cliff Dunn is the Editor of Florida Agenda. He can be reached at Editor@FloridaAgenda.com.

NEW YORK, NY – ThinkProgress reported that former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China and current GOP Presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “redefining marriage” is “impossible” and stressed that he does not support marriage equality for gays and lesbians.

These statements were made the day after he said he would respect New York’s decision to pass a law legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.
In 2008, Huntsman signed legislation expanding domestic partner benefits for Utah’s unmarried couples, including gay people. He has endorsed civil unions since February 2009, and recently told ThinkProgress that he intends to continue supporting them despite the fact that it may hurt him with social conservative voters.

By Cliff Dunn

(Disclosure: During the 2004 election cycle, the author, while working as a broadcast journalist, news director and political analyst in the Intermountain West, made the acquaintance of Jon Huntsman, Jr., then the Republican candidate for Utah governor, as well as his Democrat opponent, Scott Matheson, Jr. Following his election and inauguration, the author maintained his professional relationship with then-Governor Huntsman, who was on record as being a “fan” of the author’s political talk show.)

On Tuesday, Jon Huntsman, Jr., the former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, announced his candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination for President of the United States. What does this mean for LGBT Americans in the event the 51-year old wins his party’s nod for the White House?

Although not a household name in much of the country, Huntsman’s family has deep roots in Utah, where his father is well-known as the founder of Huntsman Chemical (now Huntsman Corporation), as well as a philanthropist and humanitarian whose contributions to help support the homeless, underprivileged and ill have exceeded $1.2 billion. Huntsman, Sr., is also the founder and principal benefactor of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and was the recipient of the American Cancer Society’s 2008 Medal of Honor for Cancer Philanthropy.

The younger Huntsman’s Republican pedigree covers decades of service at both the state and national levels. He served as a staff assistant in Ronald Reagan’s White House, and was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve first as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and later as United States Ambassador to Singapore, a post he held from 1992 to 1993.

He was appointed Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, and helped guide the accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In 2004, Huntsman was elected Governor of Utah, winning re-election four years later with nearly 78% of the vote. During his time in office, Utah was named the “Best Managed State in America” by the Pew Research Center. Huntsman resigned as governor on August 11, 2009, a year into his second term, to accept the appointment by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to China.

The conservative publication The Weekly Standard called Huntsman as “impressive as [Louisiana Governor Bobby] Jindal, though far more moderate.” (That was in 2009, months before the governor resigned to accept Obama’s posting to the Middle Kingdom; fast forward two years to this past January, when Weekly Standard blogger Jay Cost opined that “Huntsman destroyed any chance of being president when he accepted this ambassadorship.”)

Those “far more moderate” credentials were in full view in February 2009, when Huntsman’s office announced – to widespread shock amongst the GOP’s Far Less Moderate Set – his support for civil unions at a time when 70% of Utah residents opposed them. At that time, the activist group Equality Utah was supporting five bills in the Utah legislature that were sponsored by two gay lawmakers. Three of the bills called for greater parity in the areas of housing, employment, inheritance rights, hospitalization and medical-decision making.

The other two pieces of legislation would have created a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples through the repeal of sections of the state’s constitutional marriage amendment. All five bills lacked one crucial commonality: the backing of the all-influential Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(By comparison, in November of that year, the Salt Lake City Council unanimously passed ordinances that barred discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; passage came after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints announced its support for the ordinances. That support came following months of back-room negotiations between mid-level LDS leaders and leaders of Utah’s LGBT community. Said the Church’s public affairs spokesman: “The Church supports this ordinance because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage.”)

Huntsman’s support for the same-sex rights legislation came with a price tag: Scheduled to attend a Michigan GOP event in April 2009, his invitation to speak was withdrawn by a Republican county chairwoman after his support for same-sex civil unions was made public. At the time, Campaign for Michigan Families Chairman Gary Glenn said that “Kent County’s principled stand sends a strong message nationwide that grass roots conservatives will not embrace liberals who want to abandon the GOP platform’s commitment to traditional family values.” This line is very much in keeping with the views of the majority of social conservatives, many of whom will comprise the voters Huntsman will need to court during the 2012 primary season.

Huntsman may already be practicing the same sort of gymnastics his fellow Latter-day Saint, and fellow ex-governor, Mitt Romney, is engaged in over his spearheading of health care reform in Massachusetts – what fellow Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty has dubbed “Obamneycare.”

Addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, Huntsman tried to shore up his credentials as a social conservative. In remarks, he highlighted his record on abortion, saying he had “signed every pro-life bill that came to my desk” while governor.

Huntsman further said, “I signed the bill that made second-trimester abortions illegal, and increased the penalty for doing so. I signed the bill to allow women to know the pain an abortion causes an unborn child. I signed the bill requiring parental permission for abortion. I signed the bill that would trigger a ban on abortions in Utah if Roe v. Wade was overturned.”

He cautioned Republicans about making economic issues a higher priority than what he called “life” issues, claiming that “the deficit we will face is one that is much more destructive. It will be a deficit of the heart and of the soul.”

Said Huntsman: “That is a trade we should not make.”

Whether the social conservative activists who were present were buying what the former governor was selling is open for debate. Although introduced as “a good conservative” by Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and 1980s poster boy for the Religious Right, Ralph Reed, Huntsman was not as well-received – as measured by audience applause – as some of the other guest attendees, including Tea Party darling Michele Bachman, who won raucous applause with her defense of “traditional marriage.”

The dance has only just begun.