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A GOP Family endorses Liberal Matheson! VOTE MIA LOVE!

By: spoasteph97 (Diary)  |  October 5th, 2012 at 08:45 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

And he wonders why most Republicans never considered his son….

Jon Huntsman Sr. — an industrialist, philanthropist and lifelong Republican — is endorsing Rep. Jim Matheson, calling him a conservative Democrat who “represents our state very well.”

The endorsement was announced in a news release Friday afternoon.

“The Matheson and Huntsman families have enjoyed three generations of respected association,” Huntsman said in the prepared statement. “[Rep. Jim Matheson] is a conservative ‘Blue Dog’ congressional leader from Utah who represents our state very well.”

Matheson, a six-term incumbent, is running in Utah’s new 4th Congressional District against Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love.

The congressman praised Huntsman’s “remarkable legacy of public service.” (See my note about this below.)

“My family and his family have long shared the values of giving back to the community and working in a bipartisan way to solve problems and achieve progress. I am very proud to have his endorsement in my congressional race.”

David Huntsman, son of Jon Huntsman Sr. and president and CEO of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, also endorsed Matheson.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, an unsuccessful candidate for president, was not mentioned in the news release.

Neither the Matheson campaign nor Huntsman public affairs had information on whether the former governor will make an endorsement in the 4th District contest.

Abby Huntsman, the former governor’s daughter and a political commentator at Huffingtonpost.com, tweeted Friday: “I’m in too! This country needs more bipartisanship.”

I guess we can presume his son never plans to run again. Especially after he and Governor Huntsman Jr.’s daughter endorsed this liberal.

For your information (for those of you scratching your heads about who is Congressman Matheson), here is what Mr. Huntsman considers “public service”:

Matheson earned a 55% (failing) record from the National Right to Life.

Matheson voted for Dodd-Frank.

Matheson voted against repealing Obamacare.

Matheson voted multiple times for the Liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll002.xml , http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll002.xml, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll002.xml)

Do Utah 4 voters really want a dedicated follower of FORMER Speaker Pelosi?

Luckily they have another option. A wonderful public servant named Mia Love.

Here’s her website: http://www.love4utah.com/

If you can, donate to her. If you live in Utah 4, VOTE FOR HER!

For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, Spoa

COMMENTS

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  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    “I’m in too! This country needs more bipartisanship.”
    – SO THEY ARE SUPPORTING A GUY WHO VOTED PELOSI FOR SPEAKER.

    I have no words for such levels of self-delusion and/or duplicity.

    Support a vote for Pelosi over a bright and talented African-American conservative, who will surely work with both parties when needed, but only to serve solid governing principles.

  • katem

    “I guess we can assume his son never plans to run again.”
    I hope you are wrong. Because I like to see Republicans win. Jon Huntsman was the strongest candidate we had in the 2012 race and the one with the clearest path to victory. And he’s a conservative, though not so far right as to be unelectable in the general election. Republicans ignored him because he served his country halfway across the world at the appointment of Obama. (Not too long ago, that was called patriotism and bipartisanship.) If Jon Huntsman were the GOP nominee, he would have been leading Obama in the polls since spring or summer. I have no doubt about that. I’ll be very surprised if Romney wins notwithstanding his good debate performance. What a huge mistake for our party not to have nominated Jon Huntsman, the smartest and best experienced guy in the GOP primary.
    I know very little about Matheson and Love as I don’t live anywhere near Utah. But I would never hold against Jon Huntsman Jr. his father’s and daughter’s decision to endorse a blue dog Democrat. Not too long ago, I read that Huntsman’s father (who has given hundreds of millions of dollars to charities, including a cancer institute he founded) said he will support any Republican or Democrat who supports funding for cancer research, the cause of his life. If Matheson fits that bill, then that’s admirable in this conservative’s view. The article indicates that the 2 families have a longstanding relationship. I’ve voted for Democrats who are friends of mine and who ran for local or statewide office. Sometimes personal relationships trump political parties.
    Jon Huntsman is head and shoulders above all the talked-about 2016 GOP contenders. Here’s hoping he runs. Because he’s the conservative who can win. Probably the only one.

    • ww2nd95

      I 100% agree with you. Huntsman was my pick too. I’ll pull the lever for
      Romney, but for the life of me I do not understand why we didn’t give Huntsman a
      chance.. He was a very successful, popular governor in a very conservative
      state, and he had an excellent record. It just doesn’t make any since, as I have
      no doubt he would be leading in the polls right now, and Obama would be the one
      scrambling for the need to have a good debate performance to go up a notch in
      the polls.

      Rather now, we have a “good” jobs report to overshadow
      Romney’s performance, even though the numbers are misleading, the avg voter
      isn’t going to pay attention to that, they’re just going to see “Ohhh 7.8% isn’t
      8%.. Well we are going in the right direction..” and there we have it.

      No point in complaining though, Romney is our man, though I’m with you
      on Huntsman and hope he runs again in 2016, as he’s easily the best option we
      have going forward.

      • Ann_W

        You realize that UT is the most red state in the country, right? Huntsman was conservative because he ran in UT. I read an eye-opening piece about him a few months ago written by the pres. of Overstock.com. In conversations before the election Huntsman gave a lot of lip service to furthering the cause of school choice because that was a cause this guy felt strongly about. After the election Huntsman did nothing on it, and wouldn’t even talk about it. He’s an opportunist, which you see even in his comments about his faith.

    • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

      Huntsman was a favorite of the media and the liberals because he attacked conservatives and other Republicans. We need that type in the GOP as badly as we need head lice.

      Matheson is a liberal Democrat, as are all Democrats these days since they all voted to support most of Obama’s liberal agenda, who has voted for trillion dollar deficits and Pelosi for speaker. ‘blue dogs’ has become a defunct marketing term ever since Pelosi had blue dogs line up to support her extreme agenda as speaker. Politicians like Matheson are what makes the liberal hegemony in Washington, DC work. They do as much to advance leftwing agendas as Pelosi herself, because its only men like him that can give Pelosi her power.

      “will support any Republican or Democrat who supports funding for cancer research” – I know of no sentient being against ‘cancer research’, both Republicans and Democrats are for it, NIH gets bipartisan funding, and if Huntsman spends his fortune on it, good for him. But to support the party of Obamacare in the bargain – foolish in the extreme.

      • katem

        I disagree that he “attacked conservatives and other Republicans.” He disagreed with some of the more exteme candidates and said so. (We had both extremists and underqualified candidates in our primary. Not one of them was electable but they all led in the polls at one point or another.) Maybe the Huntsman campaign’s strategists could have worded some of the criticism a bit differently, but primary elections are about distinguishing yourself on some issues from people with whom you agree on other issues. Jon Huntsman is a traditional, mainstream conservative. Our party has moved farther to the right in recent years. Hence we have Romney (a former liberal/moderate Republican) tacking far right on immigration, social issues and foreign policy to become a “severe conservative” in order to win the nomination, only to find himself polling behind a very vulnerable president month after month. Jon Huntsman’s record on taxes, job creation, health care, education, etc. is conservative. But independents, moderates and some Democrats (i.e., voters we need if we want to win) love him because his views are not doctrinaire but reasoned and nuanced. And his temperament is presidential — he wasn’t angry and didn’t throw charges like “food stamp president” at Obama. No, Huntsman was positive in optimistic and proposed big ideas on banking, taxes, etc. In other words, he was the Reaganesque candidate in the race. Too many conservative pundits and commentators labeled Huntsman a liberal solely for serving in China for Obama. And they did so long before he tweeted about evolution. We killed our best chance of winning this election when we threw Governor Huntsman under the bus. Romney was never our most electable candidate; Huntsman was. Maybe the Obama campaign will implode. But, if we lose a winnable election on 11/6, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

        • streiff

          Huntsman’s campaign manager was John Weaver. Weaver managed McCain’s 2000 and 2008 attempts and he hates conservatives. So you can disagree but you’d be wrong.

          • katem

            I disagree with your conclusion about Weaver. And he was a strategist, not Huntsman’s campaign manager. But are you saying that you hold a campaign strategist or manager against a candidate? I don’t. Me, I like winning. I size up the candidate, not so much the staffers. Jon Huntsman was our strongest candidate for the general election and a conservative. Instead, we have Romney, a business guy with no political philosophy or convictions who will say and do anything to get elected and isn’t a particularly good candidate, regardless of last week’s debate. We are where we are. But we couold have done a lot better.

          • streiff

            Huntsman was a joke. He remains a joke. The voters all agreed on that. And Weaver hates conservatives. He has never made any secret of that and his fingerprints were all over Huntsman’s campaign.

    • http://llphsecondrevolution.wordpress.com/ spoasteph97

      I’m not necessarily mad at Huntsman. It just makes me mad that we have such a great candidate like Mia Love, and she could lose because they publicly endorsed Matheson. They didn’t have to do that. They could have just quietly voted for him, and be done with it. But the Huntsman family decided to publicly announce it. I just disagree. If I had to vote for a Democrat, I would do it quietly and privately.

  • norskie

    The Huntsmans are only Republicans because they realize Utah is a one and a half party state. Jon Huntsman, Sr. is a fine man who has done much for his church and society, but his political judgment is not astute. Jim Matheson does not represent his district well. Mia Love will. She has surged into the lead in the Dan Jones poll (a very reputable state poll); this is a seat that the GOP should and can pick up.

    • gawken

      Ryan/Love 2020!!!

      Seriously, has Mia said if elected, will she join the Congressional Black Caucus? The idea of Mia, mad Maxine Waters, and Sheilah Jackson in the same room boggles the mind.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Jon Huntsman has no future in these United States.

    • katem

      If he doesn’t, then I question whether my party really wants to win elections. The fact that we ignored Huntsman, a diplomat and former governor, while flocking (temporarily) to Cain, Bachmann, Trump and others speaks volumes about the state of the GOP today. If Romney loses, we Republicans need to take a hard look at ourselves and where we are going.

  • bsoe

    ICYMI – Jon Huntsman Sr. may have endorsed Matheson, but his daughter held a fundraiser for Mia Love last week.