Rumors are again floating that Utahn Steve Studdert - who is now executive director of George Bush's inauguration - will soon be named as a full-time aide as Bush's image-maker.
Studdert won't confirm or deny the rumors - which the Washington Post described this week as all but certain, according to Laurie Snow, press secretary for the inaugural committee."He's only making future plans through Jan. 20 (inauguration day). He's not looking beyond that at this time," Snow said.
But Studdert said in a recent interview with the Deseret News that his family wants to move back to Utah someday - but not until the end of the Bush administration - hinting he expects some kind of White House appointment.
Rumors are that Studdert will hold roughly the same type of job in the White House that he held on the campaign trail for Bush. He traveled every day with Bush after the Republican National Convention to ensure Bush's image portrayed in the media matched what Bush is really like.
Critics charged Studdert and other of Bush's media advisors of running a negative campaign and manipulating the press. But Republicans praised their work saying it helped Americans see Bush as a patriot and conservative.
Some people close to Studdert have said he may hold a job similar to what Michael K. Deaver had during the early Reagan years, playing a major role in framing the "daily line" of words and pictures that would emerge each day about Reagan in the media.
But no one person is likely to have the power Deaver had. Such duties will likely be split among several people.
Studdert is a former Brigham City police chief and a Bountiful City Councilman. He also served for years as an advance man for Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, planning such things as the seven-nation economic summit in Montebello, Canada, and the 22-nation summit in Cancun, Mexico.
His family maintains homes in Morgan, Utah and Vienna, Va., where he is a stake president for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Studdert is currently on leave from his consulting firm while he heads the inauguration committee.