For Romney, Mormon church is source of support, concern

It is the rare presidential candidate who goes to Idaho to raise money, but there was Mitt Romney last month, packing more than 100 people, at up to $2,300 a head, into the Crystal Ballroom in Boise.

"Nearly every seat was filled. Just about everybody that's anybody was there," said Grant Ipsen, a former Idaho state legislator. "I don't think I'd ever attended another fundraiser for a federal candidate in Idaho."

There was no great mystery why Romney was in town. The former Massachusetts governor is a Mormon, as are about one-quarter of Idaho residents, including Ipsen and others who turned out for the event.

The fundraiser was bracketed by two others in the Mountain West: one in Las Vegas and another outside Phoenix. At both of those events, Mormons made up at least half the crowd, organizers said. The two-day swing brought in more than $1 million for Romney.

As he vies for the Republican nomination, Romney is reaping enormous benefits from being part of a growing religion that has traditionally emphasized civic engagement and mutual support.

Mormons are fueling his fundraising operation, which this week reported raising $23 million, the most of any Republican candidate.

And members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS, are laying the foundation for a potent grass-roots network, including a cadre of young church members experienced in door-to-door missions who say they are looking forward to hitting the streets for him.

"When Mormons get mobilized, they're like dry kindling. You drop a match and get impressive results quickly," said University of Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell, who is Mormon. "It's almost a unique group in the way in which it's organized at the local level and the channels through which mobilization can occur."

But the intensity of this support has a potential downside as Romney tries to establish an identity separate from a religion regarded warily by many Americans, a quarter of whom, polls suggest, do not want a Mormon president.

Mormons across the country said they are excited by Romney's candidacy and eager to do what they can for him, just as members of other religious or ethnic groups with favorite-son candidates.

Yet they are also hesitant to state support too strongly, to avoid provoking anti-Mormon bias or violating church rules against politicking inside church walls.

"I know a lot of people who will support him just because he's a Mormon, and I know a lot of other people who are edgy about that," said Paul Starita, a Minnesota native attending the church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said Romney welcomes the backing from Mormons, comparing it to the help other candidates have received from their ethnic or religious roots, such as Michael Dukakis' support from fellow Greek Americans in 1988.

But Madden said Mormon support makes up only one element of Romney's base: "If we're going to win, it's going to require a broad spectrum of the American people."

Romney's political action committees, or PACs, which have accumulated $8 million since 2004, have received substantial amounts from non-Mormons such as former colleagues in Boston finance circles, and friends and associates in Michigan, where he grew up.

But based on previous fundraising, Romney's other sectors of support are likely to be overshadowed by backing from LDS members. Wealthy Mormons giving to Romney's PACs include the Marriotts, the hotel family, and the family of Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller.

Also giving heavily have been thousands of rank-and-file church members. After Romney sent direct-mail solicitations last fall nationwide, his two biggest state-level PACs received 319 checks from Utah, which is about two-thirds Mormon.

In the same period, he received seven checks from Massachusetts, where he has lived more than 30 years.