This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's 15th governor will take office with excellent credentials, a commitment to civil discourse and a determination to solve the state's critical problems.
In choosing between the scions of two of Utah's most prominent and widely respected families, voters will not find a great deal, beyond party affiliation, that sets moderate Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. apart from moderate Republican Jon Huntsman Jr.
This is the first campaign for an open seat atop the executive branch since Mike Leavitt's 1992 election, and it has raised above a whisper a question of profound importance to Utah's future: Is the relatively moderate to conservative majority of the electorate becoming sufficiently aroused to reclaim political supremacy from the superbly organized but ideologically limited right wing of the Republican Party?
Corollaries to that question: Which of the two candidates would be the most effective advocate for the economic development and tax reforms that are essential to funding education, transportation, health care and other demands of an expanding population? And which candidate would have the most broad-based political capital, and the will to expend it, to push reforms that must gain approval by a Legislature in need of more moderate voices?
The Salt Lake Tribune believes Jon Huntsman Jr. is that candidate, and that he deserves the newspaper's endorsement.
Our choice is weighted with context. This newspaper has often decried the passing of a once-vibrant political system that had ensured meaningful public debate. This system produced three of the most popular and pragmatic governors in modern Utah history, Democrat Calvin L. Rampton, Democrat Scott M. Matheson, father of the current candidate, and Republican Michael O. Leavitt.
Many factors have contributed to the gradual merging of culture and politics under the single banner of the Utah Republican Party. Not the least of these was the failure of the Democrats to maintain their unique Utah identity. More to the point, the single-party system of today has mirrored a pattern played out in other states and countries: The migration of political power to the most ardent and ideologically pure - in Utah's case the Republican far right, with its hold on the political fortunes, if not always the hearts, of legislators.
There is nothing intrinsically nefarious here. But inevitably, over time, there is a steep price to be paid by the body politic for veto-proof governance behind closed doors. Eventually, an absence of meaningful policy debate can make a self-interested system imperious and moribund, a captive of dogma and an enemy of innovation. Or prone to producing time- and resource-wasting legislation that may be mother's milk to a small minority, but which often mystifies, amuses, infuriates or embarrasses everyone else.
The Legislature's unwillingness, or inability, to effectively address Utah's mounting funding crisis in education, and thus the state's future economic well-being, was brought into sharp relief last year by a very smart and virtually unassailable critic, Olene Walker, jolly grandmother, former educator, scholar, legislator, longtime lieutenant governor and, with Leavitt's departure for President Bush's Cabinet, Utah's first female governor.
Gov. Walker gave voice to parents who have become frustrated and disillusioned by the ineffectiveness of legislative leadership in the face of the state's most pressing need: funding for public and higher education sufficient to meet the ever-heavier demands being made on those systems.
For her pains, the popular Walker earned the enmity of the ideologically extreme delegates to the GOP convention, who took a hand in shutting her out of the party's June primary.
Walker's defeat came as an eye-watering slap to a majority of Utah voters who, polls indicated, were backing her for governor. It is impossible to quantify the impact of Walker's Waterloo on the mainstream GOP, but the party's delegates sent two relative moderates, Huntsman and Nolan Karras, into the primary, and rebuffed Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens, who could not expand his deeply conservative base.
We believe that Huntsman, by virtue of party affiliation, leadership experience, fresh ideas and wide exposure to the world outside of Utah enjoys instant credibility with a broad spectrum of Utah's moderate-to-conservative majority. Though highly qualified, Matheson's party affiliation would, we fear, work against him and others in both political parties attempting to bring greater diversity to the distribution of power in state government. Sadly, Utah Democrats remain too easily marginalized.
That is the main context for The Tribune's endorsement of Huntsman, who also earned our nod for the primary election. We said then, and repeat now, that the former Huntsman Corp. executive and federal trade representative appears willing to depart from GOP boilerplate for such things as hiking the wages of beginning teachers.
We do not fault Huntsman's embrace of a limited plan to give tuition tax credits to the parents of disabled children attending private schools. But we do not join him in supporting Amendment 3, the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
We also saw his out-of-the-blue offer to fly in right-wing talk jock Sean Hannity - to inoculate Utah County against a visit to Utah Valley State College by left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore - as rank political grandstanding.
Matheson, dean of the University of Utah law school and a former U.S. Attorney for Utah, shares many progressive positions with his Republican opponent on such issues as nuclear waste storage, protecting the environment, completing the Legacy Highway and multiple uses for most federal lands. While his leadership skills as U.S. Attorney received mixed reviews, we would not anticipate any heartburn should voters call on yet another Matheson Democrat.
And both candidates deserve high praise for running positive, respectful, issue-oriented campaigns in an era when such behavior is all too rare.
We believe, however, that Huntsman stands a better chance of accomplishing many of the worthy goals these two candidates share, and of leading Utah closer to a day when political diversity in Utah is more than a humorless oxymoron.