Some Utah GOP conservatives are already jumping on the Gary Herbert political bandwagon and asking that no other conservative Republicans challenge Herbert for the GOP gubernatorial nomination next year.

And Herbert will have a leg-up with the 2,500 or so state GOP delegates in 2010 — the first hurdle for any Republican candidate — because of his extensive grass-roots party work, a potential party leader says.

But a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones & Associates finds that only one-third of Utahns say now that Herbert should be the GOP gubernatorial nominee for the 2010 elections, held to fill out the remainder of GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman's term. Jones found that 36 percent say it's time to find another Republican candidate and a fourth of Utahns don't know.

Meanwhile, Utah Democratic Party leaders are hoping that Lt. Gov. Herbert, who will become governor when Huntsman resigns after being confirmed as U.S. ambassador to China, stays to the political right.

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