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Mormons on Cusp of New Powerful Era
The Hill ^ | July 23, 2012 | Cameron Joseph

Posted on 07/23/2012 9:33:15 AM PDT by greyfoxx39

Next year could be a banner one for Mormons in the nation’s capital, with their numbers and influence likely to grow whether or not Mitt Romney is elected president.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) could raise the number of Mormons in the upper chamber to seven, should he and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) win in November.

Depending on who controls the Senate, it will have either have a Mormon Senate majority leader in Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or a Mormon president pro tempore and Finance Committee Chairman in Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

And if Romney wins the White House, not only will the United States have its first Mormon president but a number of prominent Mormon Republicans might be selected for plum administration positions.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, especially in a Republican administration, to see members of my faith well represented,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a rising Tea Party star who is Mormon, told The Hill.

“I don’t think that Mormons will be necessarily any more or any less represented in a Romney administration than they would in others…. But sometimes people tend to hire other people that they know, that they’ve worked with in the past.”

There are currently 14 Mormons in Congress: Sens. Reid, Hatch, Heller, Lee, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Reps. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Wally Herger (R-Calif.), Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).

Those numbers are likely to grow some in the fall.

Flake, who traveled with Romney during the Iowa caucuses, is the frontrunner in both his primary and general election, though another Mormon, businessman Wil Cardon (R), is giving him headaches in the primary. Heller is locked in a tight race with Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.).

Flake’s old House seat will be filled by a Mormon, either former Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) or former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams (R). Chris Stewart, a Mormon Republican, is considered a lock for a newly-created House seat in Utah. Mia Love, the African-American mayor of a small Utah town and a highly touted recruit running against Matheson, is also Mormon.

On top of that, if Romney wins the presidency there are a number of Mormon Republicans who are in line to gain political power.

Chief among them is former Utah governor and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt (R), a close Romney ally who has been tapped to head Romney’s transition team. He has been mentioned as a possible White House chief of staff.

A number of prominent Mormons have been major Romney donors — the types of people who often wind up getting offered ambassadorships.

These include Bill Marriott, a longtime family friend of Romney’s, and Kevin Rollins, a former partner of Romney’s at Bain & Company. JetBlue founder David Neeleman and Credit Suisse banking division CEO Eric Varvel, both Mormons, are on Romney’s finance team.

“A lot of these folks are very dear friends of his — they’ve known each other for decades now,” Hatch said. “I know every one of them and I don’t know of one of them that wants anything from their donations.”

But Hatch, who was an early Romney backer in 2008 and received Romney’s support in his contested Senate primary this year, said there was a natural tendency for anyone to bring along people they know and trust.

“Let’s face it, you do tend to want to bring some people with you that you know very well, that’s just a natural thing. I don’t care who it is, people all feel the same way,” Sen. Hatch said.

“Should Romney win and bring some of his people into the government, there will be a lot of people who are devout Mormons in positions of power,” said Paul Hatch, a longtime Republican strategist who grew up Mormon in Utah.

“As far as ambassadorships, Romney really does have a very strong donor base among Mormons that he’s cultivated since he ran in 1994 against Ted Kennedy for Senate.”

President Obama has appointed Mormons to serve in his administration, including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R), who served as his ambassador to China. He also tapped Larry Echo Hawk, a former assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Sen. Mike Lee noted that President Reagan named a number of Mormons to top positions, including Lee’s father, Rex, who was Reagan’s first solicitor general.

“While he was there he happened to hire one or two people who happened to be members of the Mormon faith, but that was not a conscious decision of ‘I’ve got to get more Mormons here,’ ” he said.

One of them was Terry Crapo, the brother of Sen. Crapo, who Rex Lee picked to be his deputy but died of leukemia before he could take the job.

“They had gone to [Brigham Young University] together,” Sen. Lee said. “It wasn’t about Mormonism — he was just one of the people he knew, an exceptionally bright lawyer.”

Paul Hatch, who ran Leavitt’s gubernatorial campaign and is now a consultant for Love’s campaign, said that devout Mormons tended to spend more time involved in church activities than those in other religions. He cited the church’s policy of having lay clergymen rather than full-time ministers as a reason.

“For a lot of people the Mormon Church becomes the center of their life. It’s more than going to Temple on Saturday or Mass on Sunday for an hour. People’s social circles are centered on their religious experience, particularly in Utah,” Paul Hatch said.

While Romney had a highly active life outside the church, he had also been heavily involved in its operations in Massachusetts, he added.

“Mormons are often who Mormons know — that’s who they’ve worked with, who they’ve built trust with, and the natural result is they’d bring in some of those people as staffers and assistants.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: mormon; power; romney; romneyobama
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To: Diogenesis

41 posted on 07/23/2012 10:43:45 AM PDT by kevcol
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To: fishtank
(Believe me, I really didn’t want to say “duh”, but the shoe fits.).... Yeah, they’re called heretics, cults, apostates, etc.

Depends on whose shoes you're wearing. The fanatical among them would probably say the same about you. I'd say such people were just born 500 years or so too late.

42 posted on 07/23/2012 10:44:19 AM PDT by bkepley
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To: Conservative Vermont Vet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_Islam

http://www.bible.ca/islam/islamic-mormonism-similarities.htm


43 posted on 07/23/2012 10:44:58 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: GraceG

I think there will be some crosstraining...


44 posted on 07/23/2012 10:44:58 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: Conservative Vermont Vet

Regardless of what you think of ‘em, you gotta givew ‘em credit on one thing.......

.........they have one hell of a choir.


45 posted on 07/23/2012 10:44:58 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!!!!!)
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To: Diogenesis
It's hilarious that one of your links supposedly supporting your Mittens Derangement Syndrome is actually hypercritical of him:

"Romney’s opposition is the most worrying and hypocritical. Using his specious logic, Romney has conflated all Muslim terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida, with the Islamic faith itself. His statements and ideas thus smack of intolerance, stereotyping and naked prejudice.

In 2005, Romney called for what would have been unprecedented surveillance of certain mosques and other places of worship. These actions come from a former and probably future presidential candidate — and member of a religious minority, the Mormon church — who has trumpeted respect for all faiths in hopes of increasing his chances in future elections."


46 posted on 07/23/2012 10:45:30 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (2008 + IN, NC, FL, VA, OH, NV o/r IA = 271EV)
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To: Conservative Vermont Vet; Diogenesis; Colofornian; ejonesie22
When any of you can show me whereby Mitt is as dangerous or a threat as OBAMA HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE (through words, deeds or actions) then maybe you can convince me NOT to vote for the "Lesser of 2 Evils!"

Vote for whom you please.

I believe your showing up on every mormon related thread is just a campaign message for Mitt and an attempt to derail the conversation. If it weren't why not start your OWN threads blasting Obama?

47 posted on 07/23/2012 10:46:37 AM PDT by greyfoxx39 (Jim Robinson re Romney: "HeÂ’s a cartoonish fraud. A caricature in progress." Dittos)
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To: alicewonders
With Romney, we live to fight another day - with Obama - we just die, THERE WILL BE NO TOMORROW. I grieve to think there are some conservatives (tiny minority that they are) that are planning to not vote for president or to vote for someone that cannot possibly win. We CANNOT withstand four more years of Barack Hussein Obama.

Congress oppossing a Socialist Liberal president.

or

Congress supporting a Socialist Liberal president.

Which can we not withstand?
48 posted on 07/23/2012 10:47:52 AM PDT by kevcol
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To: pgkdan
The Hill? Never heard them described that way.
49 posted on 07/23/2012 10:49:03 AM PDT by svcw (If one living cell on another planet is life, why isn't it life in the womb?)
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To: Conservative Vermont Vet

One good thing about these Mormon bashing threads is that it puts all the mormon hating, lunatic bigots on one thread so we can see who they are. A really sick, twisted bunch.


50 posted on 07/23/2012 10:49:48 AM PDT by pgkdan (ANYBODY BUT OBAMA!)
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To: StAnDeliver
Thank you, FRiend.

If Mr. RomneyCARE on occasion does the right thing, or says the right thing,
then in that we support him.

Even a broken clock is accurate twice a day.


51 posted on 07/23/2012 10:51:17 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. " Pres. Ronald Reagan)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

Very true...


52 posted on 07/23/2012 10:59:24 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: dixjea
There was little desperate in that, so a typo is no big deal.

Accusing folks of having blood on their hands, well that is in a different league...

53 posted on 07/23/2012 11:06:50 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: pgkdan
Sadly people who stand for their beliefs are seen as sick and twisted this day and age, even by “conservatives”...

So now that you have your name calling out of the way, would you like to address the information...

54 posted on 07/23/2012 11:11:41 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: kevcol
Congress oppossing a Socialist Liberal president.

or

Congress supporting a Socialist Liberal president.

Which can we not withstand?


You're taking an awful big leap of faith there.

Obama has shown that he will ram things through any way he can. Romney's feet can be held to the fire by conservatives. Our congress hasn't shown itself to have that much balls anyway.

An awful big leap of faith...

55 posted on 07/23/2012 11:15:44 AM PDT by alicewonders (I like the GOP Briefing Room for rational adult debate.)
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To: All

So??? If Mitt wins I don’t he will establish the LDS as the official religion.. Since the Constitution clearly prohibits it.


56 posted on 07/23/2012 11:15:44 AM PDT by KevinDavis (Radical Islam is a bigger threat than the LDS...)
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To: pgkdan; All

Amen.. Some of these people seem to forget that Reagan had Mormons in his Administration also.. Heck Reagan even the called the Mormon Tabernacle Choir “Americas Choir”


57 posted on 07/23/2012 11:18:03 AM PDT by KevinDavis (Radical Islam is a bigger threat than the LDS...)
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To: pgkdan

Stoopid dupe.


58 posted on 07/23/2012 11:19:57 AM PDT by colorcountry (The gospel will transform our politics, not vice versa (Romans 12:1,2))
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To: pgkdan; greyfoxx39
bigot

A person who uses the anonymity of the internet to hurl invective at another person is a coward.

My name and address, known by quite a few members here, is available upon request via FReepmail.

59 posted on 07/23/2012 11:22:51 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (Free people, when presented only with evil choices, create other choices.(EternalVigilance))
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To: Elsie; All

Meanwhile a bunch of slave owners did leave the union..


60 posted on 07/23/2012 11:23:21 AM PDT by KevinDavis (Radical Islam is a bigger threat than the LDS...)
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