Utah Governor Huntsman Brushes Off VP Questions

Jon Huntsman says the McCain has not contacted him about vice presidential slot.

ByABC News
February 18, 2009, 1:41 PM

July 14, 2008— -- An early backer of John McCain's presidential campaign, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is thought to be in the running for the Republican vice presidential slot, though he said in an interview with ABC News as any good Veepstakes contender might that the rumors come as a surprise to him.

"I've not had a single conversation [with the McCain campaign about the vice presidential process]. There are many who probably are in this particular category and will enter that particular phase of vetting and review, I don't necessarily think that I would be one of them," Hunstman told ABC News at a meeting of the nation's governors over the weekend in Philadelphia.

The governor also said he has not been asked to turn over any documents for a background check standard operating procedure in past vice presidential selection processes.

Huntsman can deny that he's under review all he wants, but the fact remains that his ideas and experience may very well be exactly what McCain is looking for.

Like McCain, Huntsman wants to move the Republican Party in a different direction. He thinks the GOP should go back to a more conservationist message with "respect for lands" in the tradition of President Theodore Roosevelt.

He agrees with McCain that Republicans should show greater concern about the environment and climate change. And like McCain, Huntsman is in favor of a cap-and-trade system to battle climate change. He's taken action as governor to improve air quality in Utah.

One of the main reasons he pushed to move most of the Utah's government workers to a three-day weekend, he said, was to reduce the level of energy used in government buildings. And Utah has a statewide energy efficiency strategy to achieve a 20 percent reduction in energy use by 2015.

"I'm responsible for a carbon footprint that I take seriously," said Huntsman, in language that might be as strange for a Republican as McCain's "pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants.

McCain and Huntsman do have an important difference on a gas tax holiday.

Huntsman said he was not necessarily in favor of a gas tax holiday on the state level because, "we have bills to pay." But he thinks the federal government can be a little more flexible than the states in terms of letting the money go.