This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman retooled his presidential campaign staff last week, elevating his communications director to campaign manager and promising a more aggressive effort. He needs it.
Huntsman has yet to make up much ground in national or early state polls, and he seems to be losing another test of support: Facebook likes.
Mitt Romney has racked up more than 1 million supporters on his Facebook page, Michele Bachmann has 430,634 who have signed on to her fan site. Herman Cain has 153,576 and Tim Pawlenty 103,518.
Huntsman? 9,571.
To be fair, Huntsman has only officially been a candidate for a little over a month and didn't take over his Facebook fan site until right before he announced. His Republican opponents have had much more time. Still, he's got a long way to go before he can catch up to their support level.
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Spotted • Rep. Jason Chaffetz dined Thursday night at Rosa Mexicano, a D.C. favorite for table-side-made guacamole, and he was spotted by several reporters. Chaffetz noted in a tweet: "Good food. Ate too many chips." We all do, congressman.
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Dogs can be disgusting • Sen. Mike Lee last week used a rather descriptive analogy for Washington's spending ways in a chippy give-and-take on CNBC's "The Kudlow Report." He was there to pitch his new book on the need for a balanced budget amendment, but the host and one of the guests were clearly skeptical.
They pressed Utah's senator on the need for such a restrictive amendment, noting that Congress balanced the budget in the 1990s without one.
Lee fired back: "Sure, momentarily, but like a dog to its vomit, we returned to our deficit spending on a massive scale."
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Hatch should watch more TV • Sen. Orrin Hatch (or more likely his staff) tweeted last week a series of critiques of President Barack Obama's handling of the debt ceiling debate. "All I have heard from the president is about the plans he won't support. Mr. President, what alternatives are you offering?"
Hatch's comment, however, came a day after the president took to his bully pulpit to say that he could support a plan by the so-called "Gang of Six," three senators from either party who have put forward the framework for a deal.
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Leaving money on the table • A look at Lee's latest campaign disclosure report shows that on 32 occasions someone sent the Utah freshman a $2,400 contribution.
That was the maximum amount when he ran in 2010 — and according to his website is still a top-level contribution — but under federal law, it creeps up every two years and the maximum contribution is now $2,500. Half a dozen savvy contributors picked up on this and sent in another $100 check.
But most did not, meaning that the senator likely could have raised more cash, somewhere in the neighborhood of .. wait for it... $2,400.
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Burr and Canham report for The Tribune from Washington, D.C. They can be reached at tburr@sltrib.com or mcanham@sltrib.com or via Twitter @thomaswburr or @mattcanham.