Huntsman has the golden touch — mostly
Bob Bernick Jr.
It's amazing what the salve of money can do.
Sometimes you just have to wonder at those who have luck — if that's the right term for Huntsman.
Bright, articulate, good looking, a Republican in a very Republican state, Huntsman runs for office his first time, wins and gets sworn in as state budgeters estimate a half a billion extra in tax revenue.
Pretty good, huh?
But wait, there's a squabble between the new boss and old-time workers — the GOP legislators — over how much road money to spend.
And what happens?
Bingo, new revenue estimates find $100 million more.
Does this guy have the golden touch or what?
Huntsman's main worry now — if indeed he has even one — would be that things can only go downhill after such a start for his new administration.
Huntsman carries around in his shirt pocket a laminated list of his main goals, pulling them out as he tells people over and over again that he's going to keep working on what's important.
(I asked him in a recent interview if his card really is a priority list or a grocery list. He offered to show it to me, but some things are best at arm's length.)
While former GOP Govs. Mike Leavitt and Olene Walker at times during legislative sessions would hold formal press conferences or give press interviews where they instructed legislators to toe the line on this or that gubernatorial spending priority, Huntsman stayed in the background.
He wasn't missing. He was still out and about at public events.
But he didn't criticize legislators at them.
At one event, he even let legislative leaders speak first before he made a few remarks and then left before reporters could get to him to ask about legislative issues.
At two KUED Channel 7 normally scheduled press conferences, Huntsman was likewise circumspect — "we're working together . . . things are OK" — those kinds of public comments.
In private, we're told (and we have to assume, since we weren't there), Huntsman was equally gentle.
Senate President John Valentine says Huntsman was straightforward.
House Speaker Greg Curtis said he didn't play any games, told them what he wanted and what he would accept.
"He said he'd only settle for a 4.5 percent increase" in the Weighted Pupil Unit, said Curtis. The WPU is the basic public education funding formula, and the GOP House caucus had taken a position to keep it at a 3.5 percent increase — a position they came off of after the new $100 million in revenue estimates came in.
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