He’s not running for President, and also, he is a state level official in a state where it is not politically safe to well attack Mormons. In the Mountain West, Mormons are a protected group, in the rest of the country they are not.
This is not a Romney specific political issue, if Reid ever ran, he’d catch it too, but in a different way. All I am going to say is look at Utah. In general, Georgia came under heavy scrutiny in 1976, and Arkansas came under scrutiny in 1992, due to their negative images. However, in 1976, it was the height of Southern dominance over popular culture and well, all looking at Georgia did was make Jimmy popular with young voters, especially Southern rock fans. In 1992, all highlighting Arkansas did was to show that the state, while ranking low in everything, had actually ranked lower before the 1980’s. If HW had been smart, he would have gone after the fact that the Little Rock bond industry was heavily caught up in S & L, because in ‘92, most of the Arkansas establishment was behind Clinton because they saw a chance to put Arkansas in control of the national government.
Romney is not from Utah, but Utah is going to be an issue because it’s Mormonism’s spiritual hub, and to be quite honest, an election where Utah is focused on would hurt us, because while alot of what people say about Utah is exaggerated, alot of it is true. Other than Louisiana, Utah may be the only other state in the country where the church heirarchy actually exhibits a strong level of control over the governmental apparatus. In Salt Lake City, the recent election trends have been elections that pit Mormon vs. Non-Mormon, with Mormons voting in bloc for someone and everyone else voting in bloc for someone else.
Right or wrong, if Romney is nominated, Utah and Mormonism becomes an issue, and given that the next President will likely have a minimum of at least 1 Supreme Court appointment, it’s too damned dangerous to risk this election to prove some point. We have to go with someone who is not going to have to deal with this for a year.
I hope Utah becomes an issue, they voted for Reagan by a higher percentage than any other state. 1980 72% and 1984 74%. In 1992 Clinton came in third in Utah the only State he did so.
They have the highest proportions of Republican party membership as well as third party Constitutional voters. I wish the rest of the country would take a page out of the Utah book.
The 10th circuit court including Utah is a conservative counter balance to the terrible 9th circuit.
Utah's state Supreme court has some of the most conservative judges in the nation.
“Right or wrong, if Romney is nominated, Utah and Mormonism becomes an issue, and given that the next President will likely have a minimum of at least 1 Supreme Court appointment, it’s too damned dangerous to risk this election to prove some point. We have to go with someone who is not going to have to deal with this for a year.”
Good analysis. But it won’t be one year we have to deal with this, but 9.5 years of candidacy and reelection. What a nightmare.
But religion doesn’t matter.