President Obama's ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, is expected to resign in the coming weeks to explore a potential campaign for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, according to reports.
Huntsman's expected departure comes after a month-long public flirtation with a 2012 White House bid, which started after the former Utah governor hinted at a run inan interview with Newsweek published earlier this month.
"You know, I'm really focused on what we're doing in our current position," Huntsman said. "But we won't do this forever, and I think we may have one final run left in our bones."
News of Huntsman's expected departure as ambassador to China was first reported by Politico.
Back in the spring of 2009, it was Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, who identified Huntsman as one potential GOP contender who makes him a "wee bit queasy." The president named Huntsman ambassador to China later that same month.
Late last week, GOP operative Susie Wiles signed on as executive director of Huntsman's new political action committee. The former governor reportedly has a core of top advisers already laying the groundwork for a possible run.
Before January's state dinner at the White House, Huntsman was asked if he was considering a run in 2012. He answered, "We're loyal to our country and our president."
The question to Huntsman came after Obama joked that the former governor's role in his administration might not be the best launching pad for a presidential run.
At a White House news conference, Obama praised Huntsman's work as ambassador, adding, "And I'm sure that him having worked so well with me will be a great asset in any Republican primary."
Rick Santorum continues to court conservative activists in New Hampshire.
The former Pennsylvania senator will speak at a Nashua lunch Tuesday hosted by broadcaster Jennifer Horn, who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) in last year's 2nd district GOP primary.
During the campaign, Horn was a regular attendee at Tea Party rallies throughout the state. But she was unable to turn her popularity with activists into campaign donations and was subsequently bested by the better-known Bass.
Santorum, who is mulling a presidential run, has made it a point to reach out to conservatives in New Hampshire, regardless of their standing within the state GOP.
He's also attended a house party hosted by former senatorial hopeful Ovide Lamontagne (R).
Gay marriage could become a thorny issue for Republican presidential candidates.
New Hampshire and Iowa allow same-sex marriage, and in both states there is a drive by conservative groups such as the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to restrict marriage to the union of one man and one woman.
That's prompted a pro-gay-marriage group headed by Fred Karger, a possible GOP White House candidate, to release a TV adFriday accusing NOM of wanting to "hurt and demean people."
NOM President Brian Brown dismissed Karger as "way out in left field," but said his group will press the Republican presidential candidates on specific marriage policies.
"It won't just be, 'Do you agree with us?' " Brown told The Ballot Box. "We don't want candidates who will just do lip service to marriage. We will have very specific policy positions that we hope the candidates will take."
Republican Rick Santorum will be in Massachusetts next week to headline a fundraiser for a Catholic advocacy group.
The former Pennsylvania senator was booked as the guest speaker at a benefit for Catholic Citizenship Tuesday in Newton, according to The Associated Press.
The former two-term senator is a staunch Catholic and has courted religious conservatives while preparing for a possible presidential bid.
Santorum was in Boston in December for a speech rebutting the late President John F. Kennedy's call for the separation of church and state to be "absolute."
Meanwhile, Santorum's camp announced Friday it's hired Nick Ryan, who worked for former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), and Jill Latham, a former staffer on Mitt Romney's 2008 Iowa campaign.
In a statement, Santorum said the two "will play a critical role in helping determine if we are able to build the necessary support to embark on a possible run."
In between trips to the early presidential battlegrounds of Iowa and New Hampshire, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will fit in a visit to Ohio on Friday.
Gingrich is set to speak at an Ohio Right to Life event and screen a documentary on Pope John Paul II's trip to Poland in 1979, when the country was still under communist rule.
Earlier this week, Gingrich was in Iowa courting voters and meeting with party leaders. He's expected to make a final decision on a presidential bid in early March, but has reportedly been telling Republicans in his home state of Georgia that he's running next year.
In an interviewwith the Columbus Dispatch, Gingrich said he's seriously considering a 2012 bid, acknowledging that former GOP Govs. Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee all have an early edge.
A group of college students from across the nation looking to draft Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) into the 2012 presidential race have purchased TV ad time in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
The PAC, called Students for Mitch Daniels, will run a 30-second spot this weekend on a Fox affiliate in Des Moines with later airings planned in New Hampshire and Daniels's home state of Indiana.
The ad features a Yale student lamenting fiscal recklessness in Washington and labeling Daniels as the consummate fiscal conservative.
"So I met this guy a couple of years ago," the student in the ad begins, referencing President Obama. "He bought me a car. He even subsidized my medical insurance. Everything was perfect. Until I got my credit card bill. Turns out he was spending all of my money."
The ad goes on to pitch Daniels as the GOP alternative to Obama in 2012, saying he doesn't have to rely on "fancy rhetoric or empty promises."
According to the Wall Street Journal, Daniels reacted to the spot with laughter, calling it "cute."
"I bet it will run on some tiny cable stations in the middle of the night," he said. "I mean, how much money could these kids possibly have?"
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