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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A new television ad for Republican gubernatorial candidate John Huntsman Jr. shows former President George Bush urging his election.
Huntsman's campaign will be spending more than $100,000 on the new Bush spot.
Steve Starks, campaign manager for Nolan Karras, Huntsman's opponent in the June 22 primary, said there also will be a new Karras ad, showing him on a school bus talking about his education plan.
"We have a fairly aggressive buy, but nowhere near $100,000," Starks said.
"They have resources we don't have," Starks said of the Huntsman family.
The new Huntsman ad has him saying that not all the work he's done for Huntsman Chemical, the family's chemical firm, or even the Huntsman Cancer Foundation can replace his family and the need he sees for securing the future of Utah's children.
Bush then comes on to praise Huntsman Jr.'s service in the Reagan/Bush administration, "my administration" and for the "current president."
Huntsman worked as a White House aide for Ronald Reagan, ambassador to Singapore for former President Bush and as a trade ambassador for the current President Bush.
Starks said he finds it surprising that the former president would endorse Huntsman "considering what his dad, Jon Huntsman Sr., said about his son's administration."
The senior Huntsman was quoted in a newspaper article last month as saying "the average guy on the street is getting killed because this administration does not care" about the price of oil and other important commodities.
Jason Chaffetz, Huntsman campaign manager, said, "The primary is all about turnout. We're worried that people are saying, 'Oh, (Huntsman) is way up in the polls, we don't have to vote.' "
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
