As most GOP presidential campaigns make a final push before the Ames straw poll in Iowa, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, R, is wrapping up the second day of a South Carolina campaign trip with a tour of the Boeing Co. factory currently-targeted by the National Labor Relations Board. The scheduling decision signals how Huntsman views his path to the nomination in a primary crowded with more conservative candidates.
Most of the GOP field is fighting over the evangelical base of the Republican Party, with varying degrees of success. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., and Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas (if he ever gets in) all have a greater cachet among Christian conservatives than Huntsman, who suffers with that constituency as a moderate and as a Mormon.
So Hunstman is making a play for the economic conservatives as a business-friendly candidate, focusing his efforts in New Hampshire and sticking up for Boeing. Of course, so is Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts. There’s no question right now that Romney is the front-runner, but he’s also got a bulls-eye on his back. He is all the more vulnerable because of his role in fashioning a universal health care law in Massachusetts that bears striking similarities to Obamacare.
If Huntsman can make a strong showing after Iowa, he’d roll into South Carolina as a viable candidate among fiscal conservatives. The social conservatives may not support him or Romney, but their votes could be split several ways among other candidates. If Hunstman thinks he can beat Romney in South Carolina, maybe it is because South Carolina voters handed Romney a fourth-place finish in their primary last time around. The next big contest would be Florida.
The New Hampshire – South Carolina – Florida path might seem unorthodox, but that’s the trail John McCain cut to the nomination last time around. And its the trail that Hunstman, who hired McCain’s campaign strategists, is trying to walk this election year.
