By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 | 8 a.m.

AP

Jon Huntsman

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said this week he prefers Jon Huntsman to Mitt Romney in the GOP Mormon presidential primary, has taken a lot of money from the Huntsman family, and the former Utah governor appointed Reid’s son, Josh, to Utah’s Board of Regents.

So no wonder Reid said Tuesday, “If I had a choice in that race, I’d choose Huntsman over Romney.”

And if they had a choice – and they did – many members of the newly minted presidential candidate’s family, including his parents, chose Reid in the most important U.S. Senate race in the country last cycle. Indeed, the Huntsmans have long been Reid supporters, although the former governor, who is scheduled to be be in Nevada on Friday, has never given directly to Reid's Senate campaigns.

But his parents and a couple of his brothers (Peter, James) and some in-laws have. And his Dad even helped the Nevada Democratic Party ($5,000) in 2008. I’m told Reid has known the senior Huntsman since the 1990s and is friendly with the son, too.

Here’s a list of the donations from the GOP candidate’s family to Reid (with help from CQ MoneyLine):

Jon Huntsman, Sr., Karen Huntsman $9,600 (2/4/09)

Peter, Brynn Huntsman $9,600 (12/31/09)

James, Marianne Huntsman $4,600 (11/30/09)

Jon Huntsman, Sr. $2,000 (11/2/04)

UPDATE: Huntsman responded on twitter to this report: "I've never donated a dime to @HarryReid and wouldn't. My record in Utah balancing budgets very different from his."

Guess Mom and Dad were fine with Reid's putative budget-balancing failures, eh?