Free Republic

Put Jon Huntsman Jr., the U.S. ambassador to China and former governor of Utah, on the shortlist of potentially strong GOP candidates for president or vice president in 2012. It is time for the Great Mentioner in American politics to mention Huntsman as a major rising star with a great political future. He is the kind of political leader most Americans seek, long on experience and achievement and far removed from the vicious attack politics most voters abhor. As the president speaks tonight, the state of the union is simple. Americans want more jobs in an economy that lifts all...

Jon Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador to China and a former Republican Governor of Utah, has hinted he might run for President, Newsweek reported on Saturday. President Obama convinced Huntsman to resign his post as Utah Governor in 2009 to become the ambassador to China. At the time, there was some speculation that Huntsman, a moderate, could challenge Obama in the 2012 presidential race. David Plouffe, Obama's chief campaign manager in 2008, had even said Huntsman was the only candidate who made him "a wee bit queasy" in the 2012 election. According to The Huffington Post, "when Obama selected Huntsman for...

State Returns from SC (polls close at 7pm EST): http://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/16213/28352/en/summary.html From NC (polls close at 730 EST) http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/17242/28326/en/summary.html For Utah (Polls Close 10pmEST) http://electionresults.utah.gov/xmlData/300010.html If anyone has better links, please share them. GO Haley, Scott, and Lee!

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, will endorse Tim Bridgewater, one of the candidates who ended his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate. Bridgewater and Mike Lee defeated Bennett at the state Republican Party Convention last month and will face each other in the party's primary June 22. Bennett was originally expected to be in Utah Friday to make the announcement, but it has been rescheduled until Monday, sources told the Deseret News. Bridgewater, who was in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, stopped short Thursday of confirming he had secured Bennett's support. "I hope by Monday we have a...

To watch the live feed from the Utah Republican Convention, go to the url above. Senate Candidates are giving their statements now.

Unless Sen. Bob Bennett's political fortunes change dramatically in the next two weeks, he could become Utah's first incumbent U.S. senator to lose his party's nomination in seven decades. A new Salt Lake Tribune poll of Republican delegates shows Bennett running in third, behind GOP challengers Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater. Lee logged 37 percent support in the survey, while Bridgewater came in at 20 percent, and Bennett lagged at 16 percent. The survey of 400 Republican delegates, with a 4.4 percent margin of error, was conducted April 22-25 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C. It comes...

Sen. Bob Bennett's re-election bid could be in serious trouble, based on reports of widespread opposition to the incumbent at Tuesday's Republican caucuses. While not definitive, interviews with a dozen caucus-goers around the state reflected a familiar theme: Support was not coalescing behind any Bennett challenger, but there was a strong "anybody-but-Bennett" sentiment.

While we’re all focusing on picking Charlie Crist off in the Florida Senate Primary, I think if conservatives really want to send the GOP establishment a message, target number one a high priority should actually be Bob Bennett of Utah. Just to clarify for those of you freaking out that I said target number one should be Bennett: the Bennett race happens before the Florida race. That said, we should be targeting more than just Florida. Bennett is worth picking off because he is an incumbent troublemaker. Granted, it was a poor choice of words on my part, but I...

On the state Capitol steps, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff today announced that he will run for the U.S. Senate to help salvage our "blessed but troubled nation" from the slide toward "socialism." "The winds of change, they are a-blowing," Shurtleff said in prepared remark. "Not the bigger government, corporate welfare, radical liberal nannyism type of change promised and now being implemented by [President Barack] Obama. But, starting today, we the people of Utah, we the people of the United States, are taking back America!" In a fiery speech filled with red-meat rhetoric used by talk-show hosts like Glenn Beck, whom...

President Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said that Governor Huntsman makes him a "wee bit queasy.” He is referring to Huntsman supposedly being a legitimate challenger to President Obama in 2012/2016. After Plouffe’s comment Huntsman got a lot of media play, which has intensified with him being picked as the new ambassador to China. The Democrats know exactly what they are doing placing a moderate-squishy Republican in the limelight. I guess the Dems apparent fear is supposed to make us start screaming to have Huntsman as the Republican nominee in 2012. They media think the message from his ambassadorship is...

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who has been open about his interest in challenging Sen. Bob Bennett in the GOP primary next year, said Thursday afternoon that an announcement about his 2010 plans will come on May 20 at a press conference in Salt Lake City. Shurtleff told a local Utah television station last week that he wants to run for Senate, but that his wife has asked him for time to talk him out of making the race. On Thursday, as he was preparing to leave on a trade mission to Israel with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Shurtleff said...

- As he nears a final decision, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is giving "prayerful consideration" to running for the U.S. Senate. In an exclusive interview with ABC 4, Shurtleff says he will make a decision about challenging Bob Bennett by the end of next week. In a very candid interview Wednesday, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told us he wants to run for senator. But his wife is a different story. Mark Shurtleff told us, "She asked for a month to talk me out of it." Shurtleff's wife, according to the attorney general, has concerns about things like: “...having to commute,...

Illegal dishsoap and detergent, Legalized recreational marijuana. IN GOD WE TRUST no longer on the quarters. Things that are happening now, like taxes NOT EQUAL. This is why our founding fathers left, and came and created the UNITED STATES, and the bill of rights, and the constitution. So we ARE FREE, TO live and worship accordingly. Our Government is in WAY more than they should be. They want in even more, to tell us how to live, what to drive. We are not under a ruler or a GOD (the Government)We have a God and we will continue to worship...

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) is not entangled in scandal, he’s never shown a hint of vulnerability and there’s no Democrat on the horizon who’s poised to knock him out of his Senate seat. Nevertheless, he could be in jeopardy in 2010. Bennett’s problem is the Republican primary. State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who won election to a third term in November with 70 percent of the vote, told POLITICO in an interview that he’s leaning toward challenging Bennett and may make an announcement as soon as this week. Many Utah Republican insiders say they expect Shurtleff to take the plunge...

Believe it or not, some Utahns are already looking at races for 2010. Perhaps the most prominent is GOP Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who says he's considering running against Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, next year. This would be a "free" race for Shurtleff, since he won re-election last November to a third four-year term. Shurtleff could run against Bennett, and if the attorney general lost that Republican Party challenge, he would still be in office for two more years. Shurtleff says he'll decide soon whether or not to challenge Bennett — who has already announced he's running again. I'm...

The faces of the new republican party that will put our country back on track are found to be on the likeness of Congressman Chaffetz and Andy G

Click photo to enlargeJason Chaffetz (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune)«12»An anonymous Web site attacking 3rd District challenger Jason Chaffetz, accusing him of malicious lies and campaign law violations, was run by a staffer on Rep. Chris Cannon's campaign payroll. Cannon's campaign says they had no idea that the young man they hired to put up lawn signs was also running the Web site. "There is absolutely no connection between that Web site and the fact that he was paid by us," said Cannon spokesman Joe Hunter. The site, thetruthaboutjason.com, was taken down this week after inquiries from The Salt Lake...

Former homebuilder Bill Dew, a Republican, announced Monday that he will challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson in the 2nd Congressional District. Matheson, a four-term Democrat, represents a district that covers the southeast part of Salt Lake County, a small northeastern part of Utah County, and, in a horseshoe-shaped area, eastern, southeastern and southwestern Utah. This is Dew's first run for elective office. A millionaire through his homebuilding business, Dewbury Homes, Dew said he is willing to "spend substantial" amounts of his own money in the race. He declined to give a number. Matheson has been challenged by wealthy Republicans before....

One of the big stories in the Republican presidential race last week was a series of controversial survey calls in Iowa and New Hampshire that asked respondents some pointed questions about Mitt Romney. Specifically, voters in the first two Republican contests received calls with negative messages about the former governor’s religion, his Vietnam-era military deferments, his sons’ lack of military service, and the notion that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible. The question, of course, was who was responsible for the calls. For one thing, they may have been illegal — as the Union Leader...

Illegal immigration was the core issue at the Utah Republican Convention on Saturday that hurled 10-year veteran Congressman Chris Cannon into a June primary election with political novice John Jacob. "Immigration is huge with the delegates," Jacob said after a runoff ballot gave him 52 percent of the vote to Cannon's 48 percent. "Chris Cannon tells them, 'I'm tough on illegal immigration - look at my record.' Well, his record does not show that." Americans want a change, said Jacob, an Eagle Mountain business owner. But they don't want Democrats. "These delegates sent a message to Washington, D.C., that we...