Huntsman Says He’s Quitting G.O.P. Race

Jon Huntsman’s expected endorsement Monday morning of Mitt Romney comes as something of an unexpected coda to years of rivalry between the two GOP powerhouses and White House hopefuls.


There have been their face-offs at recent debates, including one especially contentious moment earlier this month when Huntsman blasted Romney — in Mandarin — over his stance on China’s currency policy.


But one of the most heated confrontations between the two came not in the current GOP race but in the late 1990s, when both Huntsman and Romney were in the running to lead the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.


In early 1999, Salt Lake Organizing Committee Chairman Robert Garff, who had known Romney since the two were children, submitted Romney’s name to then-Gov. Michael Leavitt (R).


Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, two veteran Boston Globe reporters who have authored a new book on Romney due out on Tuesday, tell the tale of what happened from there.(The Post obtained an advance copy of the book.)


Yet late Sunday evening, a spokesman for Mr. Gingrich sought to portray the decision by Mr. Huntsman as a boon to him, saying in a statement, “We are one step closer to a bold Reagan conservative winning the G.O.P. nomination.”


The decision from Mr. Huntsman came on the same day that he received the endorsement from The State, the newspaper in the capital, Columbia. He had campaigned in South Carolina over the weekend, not giving any indication that the end was near.


While Mr. Romney and Mr. Huntsman were both here in Charleston, aides said the two men had not spoken Sunday evening. When approached at a downtown restaurant here, a table of senior advisers to Mr. Romney declined to discuss the endorsement.


“No comment,” said Eric Fernstrom, an aide. “”But the bread pudding is outstanding.” On Monday morning, Mr. Romney and Mr. Huntsman were scheduled to speak.


Mr. Huntsman first signaled his presidential ambitions here in South Carolina in May, days after returning from Beijing, where he had been the United States ambassador to China. He surrounded himself with a roster of veteran advisers who positioned Mr. Huntsman as a new brand of Republican.


He formally announced his candidacy in June, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, calling for a more civil kind of presidential campaign and promising a better future than the one that Mr. Obama would provide.


“He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help a country we both love,” Mr. Huntsman said of Mr. Obama. “But the question each of us wants the voters to answer is who will be the better president, not who’s the better American.”


But the campaign of “civility, humanity and respect” that Mr. Huntsman promised quickly faded into the background as his Republican rivals seized the attention — and the support — of a party faithful that seemed more interested in red-meat politics.


Voters also seemed wary of a candidacy by a person whose most recent service was to the very man he now wanted to oust. Fawning letters that Mr. Huntsman wrote about Mr. Obama’s leadership did not help that case.


For months, Mr. Huntsman languished near the bottom in the national polls and eventually gave up on competing in Iowa. He moved his campaign headquarters to Florida, betting that he could wait until that primary to make his move.


But as the first contests got closer, Mr. Huntsman made the decision to move his campaign to New Hampshire, where he hoped that the presence of independent voters would help his chances. Mr. Huntsman did better in New Hampshire than polls might have suggested, but he came in a distant third behind Mr. Romney and Mr. Paul.


But Mr. Obama’s top advisers seemed to see the danger in Mr. Huntsman’s candidacy, signaling in 2009 that they thought he might be a strong contender.