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Richard Piatt ReportingIn all, there are 14 candidates for Utah Governor. Nine of those are Republicans who are basically battling to see who will face Democrat Scott Matheson Junior.
How would each of them do against Matheson if the election were today?
There are a lot of candidates, but pollster Dan Jones found people already have favorites picked out.
Jones asked 641 people in Utah to rank their preference of the major Repubilcans, head-to-head with Democrat Scott Matheson Junior.
His poll was done exclusively for KSL and the Deseret Morning News.
Olene Walker 55% Scott Matheson 35% Other/Don't Know 10% +/-4%
The best of the pack was Governor Olene Walker, who the poll says would beat Matheson 55-to-35 per cent if the election were today.
Jon Huntsman 47% Scott Matheson 40% Other/Don't Know 14% +/-4%
The poll shows Jon Huntsman Junior would also do well if he were the candidate running against Matheson.
Jim Hansen 37%
Scott Matheson 49%
Other/Don't Know 14%
+/-4%
Matheson presents a big challenge to the rest of the Republican hopefuls as of last week, according to the poll.
Ex-Congressman Jim Hansen trailed Matheson by 12 percentage points.
Fred Lampropoulos 27%
Scott Matheson 55%
Other/Don't Know 18%
+/-4%
Merit Medical CEO Fred Lampropoulos trails Matheson by 28 percentage points.
Marty Stephens 28%
Scott Matheson 56%
Other/Don't Know 16%
+/-4%
House Speaker Marty Stephens gathered 28 percent support in contrast to Matheson's 56 percent.
Nolan Karras 22%
Scott Matheson 57%
Other/Don't Know 19%
+/-4%
There was a 35 percentage point spread between Matheson and former House Speaker Nolan Karras.
Gary Herbert 23%
Scott Matheson 59%
Other/Don't Know 17%
+/-4%
In a head to head election between Utah County commissioner Gary Herbert and Matheson, Herbert trails by a wide margin at this point.
Parley Hellewell 19%
Scott Matheson 61%
Other/Don't Know 19%
+/-4%
State Senator Parley Hellewell knows name recognition could be a challenge for him, but still gathered 19 percent of support.
Gary Benson 21%
Scott Matheson 60%
Other/Don't Know 19%
+/-4%
Even political unknown Gary Benson attracted 21 percent of the people in this poll, although it's far behind Matheson's 60 percent in that contest.
We should note Libertarian Candidate Richard Mack gathered one percent of the vote in the races involving Matheson and Huntsman, Lampropoulos, and Stephens.
