Huntsman's passive-agressive support of vouchers

Governor Huntsman signed HB 148, thinking it would become law. He resisted a referendum, then supported it for a day he knew Romney would be on the ballot in Utah. As far as I know, he didn't sign the referendum. (Ralph Becker handed me the referendum petition to sign during the blogger open house.) Huntsman said he would vote for vouchers.

But now that the vouchers bill is doomed to failure at the November ballot box, Huntsman is trying to back away from vouchers. He spoke out in support of vouchers, and voucher supporters used his statements in an ad. So now he is attempting to be not as supportive of vouchers while doing nothing to keep the ad off the air.

"I don't think there's much I can do about that," Huntsman told reporters at his monthly press conference on KUED Channel 7 when asked about turning up in pro-voucher advertisements.

"As a public person, you're out there and what you say is reported and filmed," the governor said. "I'm on record supporting vouchers for years."

Actually sir, I am sure if you said please don't use me in your ads, they would honor it, because it would be embarrassing to them for you to make such a statement in public.

Huntsman, you can't claim you aren't trying to convince Utahns to vote for Referendum 1 when you are starring in a pro-voucher ad.

So next year, when Huntsman tries to claim he was a key person in the anti-voucher efforts this year, I will be sure to remind him otherwise.