by Corey Hutchins

Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah and one-time ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, has ramped up his presidential campaign in the critical early primary state of South Carolina.

His effort will likely follow a more moderate, establishment track than that of the handful of other contenders vying to tap the vein of the Palmetto State’s tea party faction — perhaps one of the most potent in the country.

by Siddhartha Mahanta

Thanks to a Republican presidential field crowded with hardline conservatives like Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Gov. Jon Huntsman is having a tough time selling himself as a credible, semi-reasonable, moderate alternative.

So it’s a little confounding that Huntsman's fundraising team in South Carolina—an ironclad conservative hotbed—includes a staunch foe of Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, as Real Clear Politics reports:

One name that jumped out of the newly minted lineup of financial backers in the first-in-the-South primary state is John Rainey, a former head of the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisers and a two-time George W. Bush "pioneer," who bundled at least $100,000 for the Republican candidate in 2000 and 2004.