Politics still a 'labor of love' for Gov. Huntsman

Jon Huntsman Jr. turned few heads when he and his family walked into Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's Political Science class on a rainy Monday evening last week.

Clad in jeans, a blue sweater and a red-and-blue checkered hunting jacket, the 1987 College graduate and father of six hardly looked the part of an accomplished businessman, a prominent statesman and the newly elected Republican governor of Utah.

Huntsman's daughter, College sophomore Abby Huntsman, eventually urged her father, who was lingering in the back of the lecture hall, to go to the front of the room so that the course assistant would know the guest speaker had arrived.

Former Utah basketball coach and current ESPN analyst Rick Majerus, a longtime friend of the Huntsman family, said that this incident is in keeping with the governor's disposition.

"He's so unpretentious," Majerus said. "We go to this burger place in Utah owned by our friend Nick the Greek, and he just talks to anyone who comes up to him and listens to what they have to say."

Majerus also said Huntsman often appears unassuming.

"He looks like a 42-year-old salesman at Nordstrom sometimes," Majerus said.

Though he may appear ordinary, Huntsman has done some extraordinary things, and he is only 45.

We are family

The Huntsman name is plastered all around campus. From the grand home of the Wharton School to the neighboring home of the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business, the family's presence at the University is unavoidable.

Gov. Huntsman's father, Jon Huntsman Sr., graduated from the Wharton School in 1959 and transformed his family business into one of the largest chemical firms in the nation, famous for inventing the container for the Big Mac.

He has made many monetary gifts to Penn, including a $40 million donation for the construction of Huntsman Hall.

After transferring from the University of Utah, the younger Huntsman spent his last two years of college at Penn, studying Chinese and international politics. He was particularly influenced by the late Political Science professor Alvin Rubinstein, an expert on Soviet influence.

In the early 1990s, Huntsman Jr. convinced his family to help create the Huntsman Program, an undergraduate dual-degree program between the College of Arts and Sciences and Wharton. He served as the program's first chairman and also served as a member of the University Board of Trustees.

Three years ago, he spoke at the College Commencement.

His daughter Abby is the most recent of a number of family members who have called Penn home during their college years.

The governor said that the Huntsmans' strong connection to Penn speaks to his family's culture and Penn's unique educational mission.

"It was always my dad's belief that if we were lucky enough to succeed in business, we would give it away in some fashion," he said. "We've tried to stay involved because Penn is an institution that is all about empowering people with skills, knowledge and networks."

Music and motorcross

In his personal life, Huntsman does not fit the traditional mold of a governor.

When the rock group Styx performed in Utah the governor jumped on stage and played keyboard for the final song. He has also jammed with Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and his band.

Huntsman sees many connections between music and the country he has served over the years.

"I think jazz, for example, is quintessentially American," he said. "It's about innovation, creativity and the culmination of good ideas and musicality."

He also rides motorcross with his security guards and his sons.

Abby Huntsman said that her father has a great sense of humor behind his sometimes-stately exterior.

"He's never serious, ever," she said. "We'll go shopping, and the whole time he'll just sit there and make sarcastic comments."

Six years ago, the governor added a sixth child to his family when he adopted a Chinese girl named Gracie who had been abandoned at a vegetable market in China.

"It's a pretty amazing story," Huntsman said. "We visited this orphanage with pigs and chickens running around, and there was Gracie."

Majerus said that Huntsman has shown compassion in other instances as well. He told a story about a homeless man who walked past Huntsman's porch and asked the governor for a couple of dollars. According to Majerus, Huntsman invited the man inside for dinner, cleaned him up and spent a long time chatting with him.

Jamming to governing

A self-described "foreign policy dweeb," Huntsman did not dream of becoming a governor until recently..

He temporarily dropped out of high school during his senior year and made money playing in rock bands and washing dishes, hoping to become a professional musician.

Upon graduating from high school, he spent two years in Taiwan as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he learned Mandarin Chinese "off the street" and soon became fluent. He has been interested in Asian economics, politics and language ever since.

In addition to acting as chairman and CEO of the holding company for the Huntsman Corporation, Huntsman served as a staff assistant to Ronald Reagan, as ambassador to Singapore -- the youngest U.S. ambassador in a century -- under President George H.W. Bush and as U.S. trade ambassador under the current President Bush.

Huntsman said that his work as trade ambassador was particularly interesting because he was able to move China into the World Trade Organization and negotiate with India and Pakistan before and after Sept. 11, 2001.

Huntsman, a seventh-generation Utahn, was finally convinced by his family to enter the 2004 Utah gubernatorial race, especially after his friend and incumbent Gov. Mike Leavitt was nominated by President Bush to be director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In his first try at elected office, Huntsman says he ran a "positive" campaign that focused on issues of economic revitalization, education and ethics reform. He beat out Democratic challenger Scott Matheson.

Huntsman hopes to implement these goals in his first term, in addition to establishing gubernatorial term limits.

The governor said that so far he is thoroughly enjoying his new position.

"This is an all-consuming job if you do it right; there's no way to unplug yourself," he said. "But it's a labor of love."

Majerus said that Huntsman's centrist political views have allowed the two to become close friends even though Majerus is a liberal from a blue-collar upbringing and the governor is a conservative from a wealthy family.

"I don't own a tie, and he probably has a tie rack, but Johnny is a master of compromise, so he's one of the only Republicans I'll pull the lever for," Majerus said.

Huntsman has veered away from other Republicans recently in opposing the teaching of intelligent design -- which posits that human beings could not be the result of evolution alone -- in science classes.

Majerus said that Huntsman's personal touch makes him the consummate politician.

"I'm not trying to make him bigger than life," he said, "but he's what you want a governor to be."

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