Christine Todd Whitman says she would support Jon Huntsman for president. | AP Photos Whitman to Huntsman: Run 3rd party

Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, who is leading a group to draft a third-party presidential candidate, is encouraging Jon Huntsman to make an independent bid for the White House.

“I would hope he would do it, frankly. He’s someone that I would support,” Whitman said Friday in an interview with POLITICO.


Whitman, a Republican, said a third-party effort by Huntsman is the way to go because she believes it’s unlikely he has much of shot at the GOP nomination. “I don’t see that kind of traction unless he can pull off a surprise in New Hampshire, where independents are allowed to vote,” she said.

Whitman, who headed the EPA under former President George W. Bush, serves on the board of directors of Americans Elect, which is trying to get ballot lines in all 50 states and have delegates take part in an online vote to select a bipartisan presidential ticket.

She said she had not spoken with Huntsman about joining the Americans Elect process, but had discussed with him supporting his Republican presidential campaign.

Earlier this week, the Boston Globe reported that Huntsman wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an independent bid. The Utah Republican said he doesn’t “think” he would do so, but refused to take the idea off the table.

A Huntsman spokesman told POLITICO, “Unlike most of our opponents, Jon Huntsman is a lifelong Republican and he’s going to run for president as a Republican.”

Americans Elect this week announced that it qualified for the ballot in Colorado and Mississippi, bringing the total number of states in which it has access to 11 – including Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Utah. Certification is pending in California and Hawaii.

The tipping point for mainstream recognition “is going to be when we announce that we’re on the ballot on California. It’s now getting that credibility and people are starting to understand that we’re going to be on all 50 states,” said Whitman.

Whitman asserts that Americans Elect is necessary now because the electorate needs more choices than the existing party system is offering.

“The problem that we have today is that small base of very active political partisans on both sides that control the process,” she said, adding that Republicans “feel like they have to placate or appeal to a more and more narrow base in order to get the nomination. … The American people as a whole are not extreme.”

Whitman said there’s also a great deal of dissatisfaction with Obama, and her organization gives people the chance to choose a more centrist candidate for the presidency, Whitman said.

“They’re thinking the president is not the leader they hoped he would be — everybody’s numbers are in the tank. There is an opportunity for a new way of speaking out and giving people the opportunity to be heard,” Whitman said.

Whitman told POLITICO she has had some “awkward” moments with fellow Republicans since she joined the board of Americans Elect.

“It is, to an extent, taking on the party, which is awkward, always — because it is another process that is not part of what we’re traditionally used to,” Whitman said. “For those who were in office, it’s difficult to stand up because you are taking on your party and you need them, and you’ve got to be a little bit cautious. … Of course there are skeptics and there are people who are not happy when they hear a name that they recognize supporting something that is outside of the mainstream.”