Posted on 02/04/2012 6:53:17 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Very, very good e-mail lists — and an internal debate over whether to use them. “I'm getting really tired of the ads for Romney campaign trips coming from this list serve,” writes one young Mormon.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- At Mitt Romney’s first rally here earlier this week, there were plenty of hints that the enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 was stacked with Mormons. Kids walked around in BYU sweatshirts, moms chatted about LDS youth groups, and at least one supporter was overheard talking about making phone calls for the candidate as part of "family home evening" -- a weekly family night the church encourages its members to hold.
But while it's no secret that Romney's coreligionists have swelled the ranks at campaign stops from Des Moines to Reno, one question about the Mormon vote has gone largely unanswered this primary season: How, exactly, have they gotten so organized?
"We heard about it from some friends in our [LDS] ward," said one woman standing outside a rally held in a Las Vegas hotel supply warehouse. "We're so glad we could make it." Another Mormon standing nearby chimed in, "Everyone we know is voting for Mitt!"
The secret to the grassroots success lies, in part, in the unique national structure and scrupulous record-keeping of the Utah-headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the church itself is politically neutral, it contains the structural groundwork for one of the most organized and effective voting blocs in the country—something Romney is poised to capitalize on.
Here’s how it works
In contrast with most other religions in the country, the Mormon Church is nationally organized in a strict, top-down fashion, like a corporation. Every congregation in the U.S. reports back to church headquarters in Salt Lake. Whenever an individual is baptized -- either as a child or as a convert -- local ministers take down the person’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address, and feed the information into a national database maintained by officials in Salt Lake (and only accessible to certain church leaders).
From there, the individuals are assigned to geographically-determined congregations -- or “wards” -- of about 200-300, which they attend on Sundays. Their contact information is filtered into a local “ward list,” which is distributed to all local congregants for planning purposes--from coordinating Sunday school, to working out the logistics for church barbeques.
For decades, these ward lists were printed out and distributed after Sunday services, but in recent years the system has migrated online to LDS.org, where Mormons create logins to access the contact information for every fellow believer in the area.
For active Mormons, wards often become the center of their social universe: it’s not uncommon for members to visit their local chapels three or four times a week for various activities and meetings. Additionally, Mormons participate in “home and visiting teaching” programs, which require them to visit certain ward members on a monthly basis. In this context, ward lists become invaluable tools for Mormons’ daily life—inevitably finding their way into Google groups, listservs, and cell phones.
They also frequently become political tools.
Working the wards
The church expressly forbids using these directories for non-religious purposes, but that doesn’t deter many politically active Mormons from working their ward lists to get out the vote. Reports abound of members blasting out congregational e-mails soliciting support for partisan causes and candidates. One Southern California ward received several e-mails urging congregants to vote for an LDS politician running for local office. And in nastier example of the practice, ward lists in Alpine, Utah were used to spread an anonymous smear campaign against a candidate on the eve of a local election.
Several Mormons told BuzzFeed that as the 2012 primaries heated up, they started to see their fellow congregants use ward lists to organize local efforts for Romney.
Here in Nevada, Ryan Erwin, a consultant for the Romney campaign, acknowledged that the candidate has benefitted from grassroots efforts by Latter-day Saints, and said the campaign is proud of their support. But he also thinks the Mormon factor has been overstated.
“Mormons make up seven percent of the population here,” Erwin said. “If you read some of the reports in the media, you’d think it was 90 percent… it’s a little aggravating when you’ve worked for months to build up an organization and then they say, ‘Well, he just won it because he’s a Mormon.’”
That said, exit polls in 2008 showed that about 25 percent of Nevada caucus-goers self-identified as Mormon -- and Romney won that primary handily. This time around, polling indicates that he’s headed for a similarly dominant victory, and if it happens, local Latter-day Saints will no doubt deserve a chunk of the credit.
Much like how Iowa’s Christian home-school vote advanced its own grassroots efforts for Mike Huckabee largely independently of his campaign, there’s no evidence that Team Romney is officially coordinating with Mormon congregations. But anecdotal evidence suggests that a highly motivated base of Mormon supporters has effectively taken advantage of the LDS infrastructure to help Romney.
The Colonial First Ward listserv
One of the most illustrative examples is the Colonial First Ward listserv, which consists of more than 3,500 D.C.-area Mormons, many of them young and single.
E-mails obtained by BuzzFeed show the listserv being used frequently as a recruiting tool for Romney supporters -- gathering signatures to get the candidate on the Delaware ballot, requesting volunteers to aid the campaign’s Illinois operation, and organizing a get-out-the-vote trip to South Carolina on the weekend of the primary.
The fruits of that last effort were obvious on the ground in Columbia, S.C., where dozens of young Mormon students from Virginia and D.C. were found rallying for Romney at various campaign stops.
But not everyone on the listserv has looked kindly upon efforts to transform the network into a booster club for Romney, and a number of members have e-mailed complaints.
Matt Larsen, a member of the listserv, wrote last October: “I know I’m probably going to make enemies here, but I’m getting really tired of the ads for Romney campaign trips coming from this list serve. The disclaimer at the bottom of every list serve email states very clearly: ‘Items that will not be posted/that will be removed include: promoting your business, promoting political ideologies, and inflammatory comments and rhetoric.’”
The protests appear to have been ignored though, with members continuing to send out e-mails as recently as last month that requested volunteer help for Romney.
“The Colonial First Ward listserv seems to be a miraculous pro-Romney organizing tool,” grumbled one D.C.-area Mormon, who is a Democrat. “Whenever you get the contact information for 3,540 young Mormons in one place, I guess it has to be.”
For your list....This is what Newt is up against....Keep asking what legalling can be done to stop. Using church records for political/profit may threaten tax exempt statice...So how do we make sure it gets done.
Can't he? What has he ever done that's conservative? Name something.
Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to take us back to Reagan-Bush.
I ordered a kids’ video once from a “Family” organization, a video called the “Bellflower Bunnies.” A Nice family values video.
For a year after ordering, I was bombarded with phone calls asking for financial support for the organization, which turned out to be an LDS group.
It’s the only time I have ever had to fight like a Roman Gladiator to get an organization to stop calling me. LOL
They are organized, meticulous, and persistent. It must be a nice organization to have on one’s side, though the church/campaign stuff is very bothersome. Still, I’m the wrong person to yell about that, since I believe churches and religious organizations should be free to back anyone, just as businesses and individuals are. Besides, the liberal churches do it anyway.
Voting for a blasphemous heretic is voting against Jesus the True and Ever Living God, My Jesus died on Mount Calvary in reparation for the sins of the World, he wasn’t a polygamist who was also Lucifer’s brother, as the Mor(m)ons teach.
Mormons are a CULT plain and Simple, no differant than Scientology.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/episodes/s07e12-all-about-mormons
You were sarcastic?
Is this another weak attempt to be sarcastic?
mormonISM is not in anyway like Catholicism.
mormonISM teaches that Catholics are an abomination and whores of Babylon.
mormonISM claims that Joseph Smith is greater than their jesus.
Really, HD you need to learn about mormonISM before you try and defend it.
But, she was touting a book she had just finished about the common roots of islam, Judaism and Christianity. She was selling the line that the three really are the same, the main difference being that islam considers mohammed to be the latest of the 'prophets' - you know just like Jesus.
It was everything I could do to keep from going off about sharia, jihad, women's subservience...
I took this angle, saying to her...
"So, you are no longer a Christian, are you?"
She was offended, "Of course I am!"
Nope...anybody who even entertains the concept of Jesus as just another prophet, not God, cannot be a Christian.
She didn't like it and I let it go in the interest of a peaceful dinner...but she has bought the lib-lie in totum....even to the point of denying her religion.
The communist lefties currently controlling our government may have passed laws restricting the free exercise of religion in this country, but that does not make them “legal” in the sense of abiding by the constitution. Any government intrusion against freedom of speech or the free exercise of religion in this country is tyranny.
Damn the tyrants, full steam ahead!!
Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God!!
By the way, Newt Gingrich is the only candidate I know of who has openly challenged the activist judiciary regarding their unconstitutional restrictions on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc.
I pray he is successful in defanging/defrocking these black robed tyrants and wannabe dictators!!
Can I get an amen?
Sorry HD, but that is like asking humans not to exercise human nature. Guilt by association is something we all practice in one way or another.
If the mild attacks are bothering you, all I can say is, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Once Romney is the official Republican nominee (dear God please don't let this happen!) the attacks from the left will be relentless, and believe me they will be UGLY!! Reuters jumped the gun and already started their Mormon attacks earlier this week.
Frankly, I AM offended that a religion (read - cult) is helping (in a BIG way) to select the Republican nominee. It is very much the same way I am offended as I watch the Muslim Brotherhood determine the political future of Egypt and Libya.
Amen Brother!
Amen and Amen.....
And I also believe that Newt Gingrich and his righteous stand against judicial tyranny is the only serious candidate who truly understands and wholeheartedly and aggressively defends our underlying fundamental founding principles:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
When will someone ask him, “boxers or briefs?”
It would totally lockup his brain.
“Voting for a blasphemous heretic is voting against Jesus the True and Ever Living God”
Please list your “approved religion voter guide” so that I know which religions are allowed to have members run for public office.
Otherwise it’s too confusing, with all these people freely practicing their religious beliefs, we need some way to weed out the folks that simply are not to participate in an elected manner in our free land.
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