Jon Huntsman to New Hampshire voters: ‘Upend conventional wisdom’

Enjoying his final moment in the New Hampshire spotlight before the other GOP candidates roll into the state from Iowa, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. urged several hundred Granite State voters to “upend convention wisdom” by granting him a win in the Jan. 10 primary.

At a town hall in Peterborough on Tuesday night, Huntsman said he had a message for the winner of the Iowa caucuses: “Welcome to New Hampshire. Nobody cares.”

Huntsman is facing long odds in New Hampshire, the state that he had hoped would serve as his launching pad to the Republican nomination. Though his town hall meeting in Peterborough was his 150^th event in the state since he entered the race in June, Huntsman has labored in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s shadow. In the Suffolk University/7News two-day tracking poll released Tuesday, Romney led Huntsman 43% to 10%. Texas Congressman Ron Paul was a distant second to Romney in New Hampshire at 16%.

Still Huntsman struck an optimistic note at the Peterborough Town Hall, which his campaign had illuminated with red, white and blue lights. He insisted that voters don’t coalesce around a candidate until the final week of the campaign. He hammered his message that he is the candidate best suited to tackle the nation’s economic problems based on his record of job creation in Utah. And he promised to take on banks that are “too big to fail,” as well as Congress, drawing his biggest applause when he pledged to work for term limits: “How about docking their pay until they can balance the damn budget.”

Though a “super PAC” backed by Huntsman’s father has aired more than $2.2 million in ads on his behalf in the New Hampshire media markets, Huntsman’s shoestring campaign has not had the funds to air its own ads. The former Utah governor relished his come-from-behind status Tuesday night – “New Hampshire loves an underdog,” he told the Peterborough crowd – and said Romney would not be able to bring about the kind of change Americans are seeking.

“The establishment is going to say, ‘We’ve got your guy: Gov. Romney,’” Huntsman said. “Nobody wants a coronation. Nobody in this state wants to be told for whom to vote.”

“And I say, look, we can’t afford a status quo presidency,” he continued. “If you’re endorsed by 47 members of Congress, you think you can bring about the reform that’s needed in Congress? No way. No how. Do you think if you’re the largest recipient of contributions from the banking sector, you can get done what needs to be done in terms of banking reform and right-sizing the banks? No way. No how.”

Huntsman, who has joked about shamelessly pandering to New Hampshire voters since he is not competing in the Hawkeye State, argued that the results of the Iowa caucuses would be forgotten within 48 hours.

“The spotlight is going to be on you. And you always rise up to the occasion – having done your due diligence, having looked at all the candidates – and you upend conventional wisdom,” he said. “I’m excited about what lies around the corner.”

maeve.reston@latimes.com