A new Dan Jones & Associates poll, published today in the Deseret News shows that Utahns are A-OK with Jon Huntsman leaving for the ambassadorship in China, and they also feel that Gary Herbert is qualified to take over as governor.
The only problem is…a lot of people had no idea who Gary Herbert was.
That’s not unusual for a lieutenant governor, as their work goes mostly unnoticed and they really aren’t in the public light a lot, but as Bob Bernick Jr. points out in his article, 60 percent of Utah Republicans couldn’t name Herbert as the lieutenant governor. This is odd because 1) Herbert is their guy, 2) Herbert went to all the county conventions and 3) Herbert was a frequent speaker at dinners and other events (I’ve personally attended several events where Herbert was the keynote).
Overall in the state, 42 percent of Utahns could correctly name Herbert as the lieutenant governor, but he somehow managed to get a 48-percent approval rating from the state who largely didn’t know him.
Once again, we’ll have to wait and see what Utah ultimately thinks of Herbert after a few months of on-the-job performance, and, apparently, getting acquainted with many.
| Utahns approve of Huntsman’s decision.
I wonder how many of that 6% (who approve of the job Herbert is doing but don’t know who he is) are ignorant of what the Lieutenant Governor does. Maybe they approve simply because he is not an embarrassment to the state.
I don’t really know much about Herbert either, except that he isn’t as liberal as FDR-Huntsman.