Scott Rasmussen is out with a new poll of the June GOP primary for governor of Utah for the Deseret News and the University of Utah that finds former Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman losing support over the last month. The new survey gives the ex-governor just a 26-24 lead over Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, while businessman Jeff Burningham and former state House Speaker Greg Hughes are a distant third with 7% each. This pollster found Huntsman beating Cox by a wide 32-20 just a month ago.
The only other recent survey we’ve seen of the primary was a mid-March Dan Jones & Associates poll for the Salt Lake Chamber that showed Huntsman leading Cox 30-27, which is similar to what Scott Rasmussen finds now. (Scott Rasmussen should not be confused with Rasmussen Reports, the company that he founded but has not been affiliated with since 2013.)
Before Huntsman can worry about his standing in the primary, though, he has to actually make it to the primary. On Thursday, his campaign learned that state election authorities had rejected just over half of the 36,000 signatures he’d submitted, and that he needed to collect another 11,500 valid petitions by April 13. If he fails, Huntsman can still make it onto the primary ballot by taking enough support at the April 25 party convention, but he may have a very tough time in a gathering that tends to be dominated by anti-establishment delegates.
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