Huntsman on donating to campaign: Politics isn't a "humanitarian cause"
If it comes down to it, will former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman tap into his personal fortune to finance his presidential campaign?
The candidate isn't saying for sure.
When questioned on the subject by CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, Huntsman noted that he didn't usually consider politics a worthy cause for donation - but he stopped short of totally ruling out the possibility.
"If you finish in the single digits do you go into your personal wealth and carry the campaign into South Carolina and beyond?" Pelley asked Huntsman in an interview for the Evening News. (Watch more of the interview on CBS at 6:30 p.m. ET.)
"We're a humanitarian family. You know, we typically give to humanitarian causes. And I've always argued that politics doesn't qualify necessarily as a humanitarian cause," Huntsman laughed in response.
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"If you're not earning it, if you're not getting out where your message is so captivating that you're bringing people on board then you're gonna hit a wall eventually," he continued. "You've gotta get folks who bring you up by virtue of your message and your leadership ability who are willing to invest in your cause."
Huntsman comes from a vast personal fortune (his father developed the "clamshell box" in which McDonald's Big Macs used to be served, among other things) but the candidate has so far been reticent to dip into that money for his presidential bid. Early on in the race, he donated a little over $2 million to his campaign, and recently he pledged a dollar-for-dollar match for donations in his name. But many observers have expressed surprise that the candidate and his family has yet to contribute more toward the effort.
Barring a strong finish in New Hampshire Tuesday night, however, the candidate may not have much of an alternative if he wants to continue on in the race. Huntsman previously said that unless he was able to "exceed market expectations" in the primary, he'd have to bow out of the race.
