EXETER, NH -- As Jon Huntsman campaigns in New Hampshire for votes one handshake at a time, the pro-Huntsman Super PAC Our Destiny has purchased $218,000 of air time in the Granite State labeling Mitt Romney a "chameleon."

It is the first TV ad of the cycle to single out and criticize Romney, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.

The ad, which will appear in both New Hampshire and the greater Boston area, attempts to paint a narrative that Huntsman and Romney are the "two serious candidates" left in the race.

"Two serious candidates remain. One willing to say anything; be anything. One who can actually do the job," the narrator says in the ad. "Stop the chameleon, vote Jon Huntsman."

The new spot coincidentally aligns with Huntsman's new -- and more aggressive -- verbal jabs at both Romney and Ron Paul in the past two weeks.

Last night in Wolfeboro -- the New Hampshire town where Romney owns a vacation home -- Huntsman called Romney "establishment." Two weeks ago, he also named the former Massachusetts governor a "serial flip-flopper."
 
"You know the establishment wants to tell you that we've already got somebody chosen in Gov. Romney. I say nonsense," Huntsman bellowed to an audience of more than 200 last night in what is considered Romney country. "The last thing this country needs is a status quo president at a time when change is so desperately required."

In the past, Huntsman has told NBC News he is grateful for any outside support. Operating on a shoe-string budget with little fundraising, Huntsman consolidated his campaign from a multi-state strategy to just New Hampshire this fall.

PETERBOROUGH, NH -- After dodging the question twice in two days, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman appeared to shut the door on running as a third-party candidate for president, if he doesn't become the Republican presidential nominee.

"I'm not running as an independent. I'm not running as an independent," Huntsman told reporters after a town hall meeting this morning. "I don't know how many times I have to say that."

This is the first time Huntsman appeared to completely rule out a run outside the Republican Party, and it's his most definitive answer to date. Previously, the former ambassador to China seemed to leave the option open, saying he was running in the GOP and planned to win the Republican nomination.
 
"I've been a lifelong Republican. I expect to be the nominee, and that's how we are going to resolve it," Huntsman said, ducking the question in Londonderry on Friday evening.

Huntsman also tried to play down news that his former campaign manager Susie Wiles endorsed Mitt Romney today.

"That's all political gamesmanship," Huntsman said when asked about Wiles' jump.

Huntsman also lost a key New Hampshire supporter Robert Brothers last night, to which Huntsman said, "Oh, we are picking up people all the time. That's how politics goes sometimes."

BEDFORD, N.H. -- Two high-profile supporters of Jon Huntsman announced they would support rival campaigns, a development coming just hours before the former Utah governor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich meet on Monday at a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate.

Richard Brothers, a former state commissioner of employment security and a core member of Huntsman's New Hampshire leadership team, has "sever[ed] all bonds" with the campaign in an email to senior staff, citing a "lack of integrity and honesty of the parties within the campaign” regarding financial matters.

Huntsman's former campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is now supporting Mitt Romney in Florida.

Brothers moved quickly to endorse Newt Gingrich Sunday night. He will serve as a veterans’ affairs advisor in a volunteer capacity, the Gingrich campaign told NBC News.

Wiles will be named Romney's Florida advisory council co-chair, according to Romney spokesman Ryan Williams. Wiles was replaced on the Huntsman campaign by Matt David this summer.

At the same time as these exits, the Huntsman campaign sought to project an image of growing support, rolling out a statewide leadership team in New Hampshire consisting of 140 supporters and volunteer captains from all 10 counties in the state, and 90 towns and cities.

New Hampshire state Senator Nancy Stiles will chair the grassroots get-out-the-vote effort for the January 10 primary.

In an email Saturday evening to Huntsman’s chief strategist John Weaver, campaign manager Matt David, New Hampshire state director Sarah Crawford Stewart and other Huntsman staff, Brothers complained of financial troubles that caused him to abandon the Huntsman campaign. NBC News obtained a copy of the email from a high-level source close to the Gingrich campaign.

Brothers complained that the Huntsman campaign entered an agreement with Reliant Strategies -- an entity made up of Brothers and fellow early supporter Peter Spaulding -- to serve as consultants to the campaign at a rate of $15,000 per month beginning March 10, 2011. In the message, Brothers said the Huntsman campaign had not made payments from July through December. In November, Brothers said he requested payment for past due payments, but was informed by the campaign that the original $15,000 rate had been dropped to $5,000 without his prior consent, effective August 1.

Using dramatic language, Brothers called the unannounced rate change “nothing short of disgraceful and what can only be termed outrageous."

“Had we been informed in advance by the campaign there was a financial issue where the campaign was unable to meet its agreed upon obligations to Reliant Strategies we may very well have waved our agreed upon fees and continued to work on a voluntary basis as we had done on the first three months of this year,” Brothers added.

The Huntsman campaign denied the allegations.

"Richard Brothers had left the campaign and his accusations are false, we wish him the best in his future endeavors," Huntsman spokesperson Tim Miller told NBC News.

Miller also responded to the news of Wiles’ endorsement of Romney, saying, "Governor Romney's unusual decision to announce a paid political consultants ‘endorsement’ shows that his campaign is very concerned about Jon Huntsman's New Hampshire momentum and consistent conservative message."

Bleak finances have plagued the Huntsman campaign since the summer. According to the most recent FEC report, the campaign is approximately $900,000 in debt. It has depended on Our Destiny PAC, a pro-Huntsman super PAC believed to be funded largely by Huntsman's billionaire father, to air television ads.

The Romney campaign clarified in an email to NBC News that Wiles' position is unpaid.

MILFORD, N.H. -- Mentioning a new major policy idea as almost an aside, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman quietly rolled out a new proposal last night, saying that he would push for a "citizen legislature" if elected president.

The proposal was a new iteration of an idea Huntsman has proposed before: a Constitutional amendment imposing 12-year term limits -- two terms in the Senate, or six in the House -- for members of Congress. The Huntsman campaign said this would eliminate the "professional Washington class" and be followed by a total ban on lobbying for four years after holding office and a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of Congress and cabinet members on "any issue where they had significant responsibility."

Huntsman also said that, in Washington, that he would require all members of Congress and cabinet officials to "publicly release all income for four years following their service."

"This nation has had enough in bad behavior. The people have been screwed. And I say it's time that we come up with a citizen legislature act. That's what I'm going to do," Huntsman told more than 120 voters at a town hall in Milford.

Huntsman proposed this "citizen legislature" amidst a retooled, leaner stump speech. He went onto justify the idea by criticizing long-time policy makers for succumbing to what he called an addiction to "incumbency" and a "trust deficit."

Huntsman's federal legislature proposal comes more than a month after rival Rick Perry rolled out his own version of a part-time legislature. The former ambassador to China did not provide any specifics on salaries and staffing. Perry has suggested cutting Congressional salaries and staffing in half.

"It gives people 12 years to get something done and then afterwards they can't capitalize on that influence by participating in the insider lobbying and crony capitalism that perpetuates in D.C.," Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller told NBC News.

The campaign explained Huntsman chose twelve years to allow for a potential of two Senate terms.

With less than five weeks until the New Hampshire primary, Huntsman dialed back his direct criticism of fellow candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the Granite State. Just a few hours earlier, Huntsman slammed both by name as the "panderer-in-chief" and "lobbyist-in-chief" respectively in Washington.

When asked if this quieting of direct attacks was indicative of his final-stretch strategy in a state in which he has staked his entire campaign, Huntsman said, "It's not about naming names, it's about putting forth ideas."

Huntsman is fundraising in Minneapolis today, and returns to New Hampshire tomorrow.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman laid the groundwork for the arguments he will make down the home stretch heading into the New Hampshire primary and blasted his GOP rivals during a speech at the National Press Conference this afternoon.

The former Utah governor ramped up his critiques against presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, saying the former Massachusetts governor panders on issues and the former House speaker is an entrenched Washington lobbyist.

"Governor Romney will say anything to earn the voters trust. We are in this mess because there are already enough people in Washington who make a career out of telling people what they want to hear," said Huntsman.  "Newt Gingrich is a product of that same Washington, who participated in the excesses of our broken and polarized political system. You may not agree with me on every single issue. But you’ll always know exactly where I stand, and I will never waver from my conservative convictions."

Today's speech, titled "Restoring Trust," was meant to highlight the lack of faith Americans are showing in the direction of the economy and politicians in Washington.  But pre-release experts of the speech from the campaign focused on Huntsman's digs on fellow Republicans, signaling an attempt to draw attention to a presidential bid that has yet to catch fire with less than a month to go before the opening contest.

"We have a choice in this race.  You have a choice between a panderer-in-chief, a lobbies-in-chief, or a commander-in-chief.  I want to be that commander-in-chief," Huntsman said.

Huntsman sits at just nine percent in the latest NBC/Marist poll, behind candidates who have spent considerably less time in the Granite State like Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

Today's rhetoric overshadows the seven-point plan the former China ambassador introduced to fix an ailing economy and help restore Americans confidence in government.

His points largely echoed what other Republicans have said on the trail.  Huntsman called for "a tax code that is flatter and simpler" a comprehensive energy strategy and  "cutting spending in every corner of government, leaving no sacred cow untouched."

Though his final two points are more unique to the Republican race.  He said he would bring the troops home from Afghanistan,  "while leaving behind an appropriately sized counter-terrorism presence." His final point is a proposed Constitutional Amendment of term limits.  Huntsman proposed six 2-year terms for member of the House, and two 6-year terms in the Senate.

From DC, Huntsman heads back to New Hampshire for a town hall event in Milford tonight.

Mitt Romney rapped President Obama hard on Wednesday before a group of Jewish Republicans on the issue of the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Romney, who's been sharply critical throughout the primary campaign of Obama's handling of Israel, fired up attendees of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the group's conference this morning in D.C.

"I don’t think he understands America," Romney said, and promised, as he did in the most recent debate: "I will travel to Israel on my first foreign trip. I will reaffirm as a vital national interest Israel’s existence as a Jewish state."

"In three years in office, he hasn’t found the time or interest to visit Israel, our ally, our friend.” he said of the president.

And in a 30-second, ad-ready soundbite, Romney (the onetime Senate, successful gubernatorial, and twice-presidential candidate) said, "I don't have a political career."

"I am not a creature of Washington, I am a creature of the private sector," he said. "I’m a business guy. I am not in this because I want the next step on my political career. I don’t have a political career – I am in this because I care about America."

Romney followed former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who also spoke this morning at the conference.

Huntsman opened with a shoutout for New Hampshire, where he's staked his campaign, before pivoting to swipes at his fellow candidates.

"New Hampshire is always going to be that state that upends conventional wisdom," he said of what his campaign hopes to be a boomlet of sorts in the Granite State. He said he's the only candidate who won't "pander" or "twist myself into a pretzel" compared to the others on stage, and he won some applause from the audience for saying he wouldn't attend the "Don Trump" debate.

On Iran, a subject on which the candidates so far today have worked to out-hawk each other, he said "If we can't live with a nuclear Iran, and I can't, you have to say all options are on the table."

Asked about the Belgian ambassador's recent comments that many interpreted as anti-Semitic, Huntsman implied that the problem reached far beyond the single envoy alone, saying that critics should work to find out "who higher up is responsible" for the language critical of Israeli leaders.

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman appeared to take a notably more skeptical view towards current climate change science Tuesday, saying that the "scientific community owes us more" on the issue and that not enough solid research exists to "formulate policies" based on global warming.

"I'm not a scientist, I'm not a physicist, but I would defer to science in that discussion, and I would say that the scientific community owes us more in terms of a better description or explanation about what might lie beneath all of this," Huntsman told an audience of bloggers at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"But there's not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies in terms of addressing it overall, primarily because it's a global issue," he went on. "We can enact policies here. But I wouldn't want to unilaterally disarm as a country, I wouldn't want to hinder job creators during a time when our economy is flat."

Huntsman made waves earlier this summer when he took aim at his GOP rivals for expressing skepticism about evolution and climate change science, sending out a much-retweeted message in August that read, "To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

Asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he has reversed that position, Huntsman said that he still "defers" to scientists who study the issue but said that there remain conflicts among the research community.

"Because ... there are questions about the validity of the science, evidence by one university over in Scotland recently, I think the onus is on the scientific community to provide more in the way of information, to help clarify the situation, that's all."

Huntsman also compared the issue of climate change to cancer research.

"If there's some interruption or disconnect in terms of what other scientists have to say, then let the debate play out within the scientific community," he said. "I think that's where we are. There's probably more debate yet to play out."

Huntsman also took questions from attendees about trade policy, education, and the United Nations. He echoed criticisms of one federal agency often derided by his fellow Republicans, telling the audience "I'm still trying to find the value added of the Department of Education."

Spokesman Tim Miller described the former Utah governor's position as consistent, saying that Huntsman has consistently said that if 90 percent of climate scientists agree on the effects of man-made warming, "he trusts their position."

"That was his position then and it's his position now," Miller said, adding that Huntsman's statement today related more specifically to the global nature of the problem -- that United States policy should not be shaped around the threat of global warming until the science is indisputably settled and "until the Chinese are on board."

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. –- Jon Huntsman suggested today that he won’t be participating in Mike Huckabee’s FOX News forum tonight, because it does not further his ultimate goal of winning New Hampshire’s primary.

“We're going to stay focused on the endpoint -- that's winning New Hampshire. You do as much a you can during the course of each week,” he told NBC News after speaking to members of the Berkeley County Republican Party at the American Legion club here. 

Rather, Huntsman will be in Charlotte, NC tonight, meeting with supporters at a tailgate before the ACC championship game between Clemson and Virginia Tech, according to his campaign.

Huntsman could, in fact, have his dance card filled with various forums, including those hosted by Huckabee, Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich, but he’s decided only to accept Gingrich’s invitation, explaining today that the former House speaker’s Lincoln-Douglas-style debate would be free of, as Huntsman put it, “nonsense.” 

“It provides a platform of substance where you get more than 60 seconds or 30 seconds to talk about the pressing issues of the day,” Huntsman said of the debate with Gingrich, scheduled for Dec. 12. “That kind of format will lend itself to a free-flowing discussion uninterrupted by nonsense.”

Huntsman also had terse words for Trump, who is moderating a Newsmax debate on Dec. 27 in Des Moines, Iowa. “I’m not going to journey to New York City to meet with Don Trump. You just need know that,” he said, to scattered laughter, at the American Legion.

By NBC's Jo Ling Kent

Merrimack NH--On Monday evening, a visibly energized Jon Huntsman zeroed in on New Hampshire front-runner Mitt Romney and attacked him sharply, in a state where the former Utah governor has staked his entire presidential campaign.

With just 43 days left until the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary, Huntsman questioned Romney's ability to shake up Washington and Wall Street as president.

"Anyone who is in the hip pocket of Wall Street because of all the donations they are picking up, like Mr. Romney, is in these days is not going to be the change agent who is going to fix the too big to fail banking system," Huntsman told about 80 voters at a town hall-style meeting. This was his 110th public campaign stop in New Hampshire.

Huntsman also attempted to downplay the recent string of New Hampshire congressional endorsements Romney has received. Last week, the former Massachusetts governor won the support of Senator Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Charlie Bass, two of the three Republicans in the Granite State congressional delegation.

"You should be wary of any candidate who carries the endorsements of every member of Congress, because it means they're going to be a status quo president," Huntsman said.

At the same time, Huntsman said over the weekend that he is courting newspaper editorial board endorsements across the state, north to south. Yesterday Newt Gingrich received the influential support of the New Hampshire Union Leader, an endorsement that was not expected to go to Huntsman.

The former ambassador to China, who is currently polling at 8 percent in New Hampshire, also presented his own plan to shake up Washington: impose a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of Congress, tie salaries to performance, and impose term limits.

Huntsman vowed to cut the salaries of members of Congress "until they balance the damn budget."

In the final stretch to the January 10 primary, Huntsman says he is "jubilant" about where he stands among the candidates despite his single digit support.

"I want a sustained rise that is not fickle," Huntsman said, accompanied by his wife Mary Kaye. "You have to lay a substantive ground work here in NH...I don't want 15 minutes of fame."

Huntsman wraps up this campaign swing Thursday and will travel to South Carolina on Friday for more town hall meetings this weekend.

By NBC's Jo Ling Kent

Manchester, NH -- Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman may have scored more speaking time on "Saturday Night Live" than he did at the last debate he attended.  In a surprise appearance on "Weekend Update," a jovial Huntsman showed off his humorous side, which until now has been limited to awkward one-liners at crowded debates and via his social media-savvy daughters (@Jon2012girls).

NBC

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman on SNL's Weekend Update with Seth Meyers.

Huntsman, who recently shrunk his national campaign to a one-state strategy in New Hampshire, poked fun at how much time he has spent in the Granite State. Last week, he surpassed his 100th campaign stop in the state.

Sharing the news desk with New Hampshire native and "Weekend Update" host Seth Meyers, the former ambassador to China showed off some state trivia in a clever skit that was sure to tickle New Hampshire viewers.

"I love all of America -- from Dallas, Texas, to Manchester, New Hampshire. From the majestic Rocky Mountains to New Hampshire's scenic Lake Winnipesaukee. From the innovation of Silicon Valley to the affordable outlet malls in North Conway, New Hampshire," Huntsman quipped.

Meyers cautioned Huntsman that New Hampshire citizens don't take compliments easily. Huntsman leaned over and coolly said, "That's because you are as wise as a Dartmouth professor."

Huntsman also embraced his ongoing status as an underdog in the race for the White House.

"Only a few months ago, I was polling at margin of error. To have any digit at all is a pretty big deal," Huntsman joked. Huntsman was polling at 8 percent in a recent New Hampshire state survey by Bloomberg News.

In perhaps the most telling line of the sketch, Huntsman asked Meyers about his parents' political affiliations. Meyers' mom is a registered Democrat while his father is a registered independent voter. Huntsman, who needs to win over independent voters to make a splash in New Hampshire's Jan. 10 primary, leaned over to Meyers and said, "Say hi to your dad for me."

Huntsman has had several major appearances on television this week, including an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN and a new ad sponsored Our Destiny PAC, a group supporting his candidacy. He returns to New Hampshire on Monday.