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April 30, 2007
Romney's 'sixth son' handles campaign money
Mitt Romney has five sons, but if he had another, it would be Spencer Zwick.
The 28-year-old Salt Lake City native has been the presidential candidate's right-hand man for years, and now as Romney's national finance director, he is heading up the most crucial part of Romney's White House bid.
A month of controversy over the decision to invite Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at Brigham Young University's commencement ended Thursday with more than 20,000 BYU graduates and their families, along with faculty and staff, soaking Cheney in applause.
There was no sign of disapproval inside the Marriott Center. Instead, the crowd cheered as Cheney arrived with President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Hinckley returned the greeting with a signature wave of his cane. The crowd cheered again when Cheney received an honorary doctorate of public service and cheered repeatedly during his apolitical speech, interrupting it 18 times with applause.
20,000 to hear Cheney at BYU: He'll get honorary doctorate
Air Force Two will deliver the vice president of the United States to Utah this afternoon, when Dick Cheney will speak to more than 20,000 people during commencement exercises at Brigham Young University.
BYU will award Cheney an honorary doctorate of public service during ceremonies that begin at 4 p.m. Cheney will arrive in Salt Lake City shortly before 2 p.m. and will meet with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City at 2:30 p.m.
Vice President Dick Cheney will make a courtesy visit to leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before giving the commencement address at Brigham Young University on Thursday.
Cheney, whose visit has prompted protests and counter protests at the Provo school, will fly in and out of the state within a few hours, but, like most national leaders in town for a day, will drop by LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City to visit with President Gordon B. Hinckley and his top two counselors, church officials confirmed Monday.
Last semester, weekly meetings of the College Democrats club at Brigham Young University drew three or four people.
The club shot out of obscurity this month when new club president Diane Bailey organized an on-campus political protest to criticize the record of Vice President Dick Cheney, who will be BYU's commencement speaker on Thursday. Bailey will oversee a second campus demonstration hours before Cheney speaks.
Fueled by donors in states with a high concentration of Mormons, Republican Mitt Romney has raised more money in the Interior West than any other presidential candidate, an analysis of federal election records show.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, collected nearly $4.5 million from the region in the first quarter of 2007. While Salt Lake City not suprisingly topped the list, Romney also raised a considerable amount of money in towns like Idaho Falls, Idaho and Mesa, Ariz.
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, spoke of her Mormon lineage at a special naturalization ceremony Tuesday at the National Archives.
She told the soon-to-be-Americans that “it takes work to create a country and work to keep a country, and part of that work lies in appreciating our history; and it is our history, whether our ancestors were here or not in the early days.”
An array of donors who never had given money in a federal election opened their wallets to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this year, drawn to him through his networks in the business world and the Mormon church.
Utah, seldom a go-to state for politicians seeking money, was Romney's second most generous state, reflecting the ties he has built there through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his time as president of the Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee.
Rare Protests at Brigham Young Over a Planned Cheney Appearance
The invitation extended to Vice President Dick Cheney to be the commencement speaker at Brigham Young University has set off a rare, continuing protest at the Mormon university, one of the nation’s most conservative.
Some of the faculty and the 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, who are overwhelmingly Republican, have expressed concern about the Bush administration’s support for the war in Iraq and other policies, but most of the current protest has focused on Mr. Cheney’s integrity, character and behavior. Several students said, for example, that they were appalled at Mr. Cheney’s use of an expletive on the Senate floor in a June 2004 exchange with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont.
The tension between the campaigns of Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was palpable when Harvard University gathered together top GOP strategists last month.
The issue was Romney's Mormon religion and for a few minutes, the audience was transfixed by an exchange between McCain advisers Bill McInturff and Stuart Stevens and Romney advisers Alex Castellanos and Ben Ginsberg.
Most LDS students at Brigham Young University are too deferential to the Bush administration, a BYU professor said Monday during a panel discussion about Vice President Dick Cheney and the war on terror.
Professor Scott Cooper said many BYU conservatives refuse to question President Bush or Cheney on virtually anything, but he agreed with another panelist that much of the faculty is just the opposite.
In May, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, will give the commencement address at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. What better opportunity for Mr. Romney to discuss the issue of his Mormon faith before an audience of evangelicals?
When John F. Kennedy spoke before Protestant clergymen in Houston in 1960, he sought to dispel the fear that as a Catholic president, he would be subject to direction from the pope. As a Mormon, Mr. Romney faces ignorance as well as fear of his church and its political influence. More Americans, polls show, are willing to accept a woman or an African-American as president than a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the first Mormon in history to make a serious run for president. Notre Dame political science professor David Campbell speaks with Scott Simon about the role of religion in Romney's run for the Republican nomination.
Jon M. Huntsman Sr., a self-made billionaire, philanthropist, and patriarch of one of Utah's most powerful families, waxes philosophic in the letters he has written urging people to support former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts as the Republican nominee for president. "A defining moment for the future of our great country," Huntsman calls the 2008 election.
Huntsman's son, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., Utah's wildly popular governor, with a 77 percent approval rating in one recent poll, uses strikingly similar language in supporting Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Some at BYU urge withdrawal of Cheney's commencement invitation
Some students and faculty on one of the nation's most conservative campuses want Brigham Young University to withdraw an invitation for Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at commencement later this month.
Critics at the school question whether Cheney sets a good example for graduates, citing his promotion of faulty intelligence before the Iraq war and his role in the CIA leak scandal.
Despite his early fundraising success, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is spending more and more time defending his religion on the campaign trail.
KUTV news reporter Katie Baker visited churches in Salt Lake City and found that faith seems to be a top campaign issue.
Mitt Romney is riding high this week after his victory in "the first primary," which consists of raising cold, hard cash to compete: more than $20 million in the first quarter, $5 million more than his closest contender, Rudy "Lay off my wife!" Giuliani. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) came in a lackluster third with $12.5 million.
Romney's campaign benefited from two distinct donor networks, according to media accounts: Wall Street and Mormons. GOP front-runner Rudy, struggling with one of those weird media freak shows erupting around his wife, Judith (her alleged participation in future Cabinet meetings and former puppy killings), must be a little envious on both counts.
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign said Monday that it had raised $20 million in the first quarter, tapping two distant but rich networks — Wall Street and the Mormon Church — to easily outpace his better-known Republican primary rivals.
Some students and faculty on one of the nation's most conservative campuses want Brigham Young University to withdraw an invitation for Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at commencement later this month.
Critics at the school question whether Cheney sets a good example for graduates, citing his promotion of faulty intelligence before the Iraq war and his role in the CIA leak scandal.
An invitation by Brigham Young University to the vice president of the United States to be the commencement speaker next month has triggered discussion and some controversy over the issue of political neutrality.
Whatever the personal views of individual students or other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the invitation is seen by the university’s board of trustees as one extended to someone holding the high office of vice president of the United States rather than to a partisan political figure.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fired back Thursday at criticism of the choice of Vice President Dick Cheney as Brigham Young University's commencement speaker.
The church and the university also announced Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an LDS Democrat from Nevada, will speak at BYU on Nov. 27.
An on-campus protest opposing the invitation of Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at the April commencement ceremony has been approved by Brigham Young University officials.
Boyd Ivey, for the Deseret Morning NewsSpencer Kingman talks to fellow BYU students Wednesday at a meeting held to organize next week's protest. A group of students met Wednesday night to organize the protest, scheduled for next Wednesday, as well as other possible demonstrations in the Provo area.
The location and time for the protest at BYU have not yet been decided, said BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins.
Conservative author says Romney can overcome "Mormon problem"
Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt thinks Mitt Romney's biggest opposition comes not from evangelical Christians who view Mormonism as a cult, but rather from secular liberals who remain skeptical of anyone who believes in revelation, divine intervention or miracles.
Writers in Slate and The New Republic, for example, called Romney's Mormon beliefs ludicrous and suggested that believing them disqualified him from office. That is bigotry, pure and simple, Hewitt says, and all people of faith should condemn it - or no one is safe.
You've probably heard by now that Mitt Romney has a Mormon problem. It seems every pollster of note has published a poll showing that many Americans consider Mr. Romney's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - commonly called the Mormon Church - a potential deal-breaker.
John F. Kennedy faced a similar challenge as he campaigned to become the first president who was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Many are encouraging Mr. Romney, the Republican former governor of Massachusetts, to borrow several pages from the JFK playbook - especially the speech he delivered to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in September 1960.
A top leader in the Southern Baptist Convention predicted that former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani would not succeed in winning the votes of Southern Baptists if he were to become the Republican nominee for president in 2008.
In brief comments after a chapel service at the North Carolina legislature on Wednesday, Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich would likely fail for the same reason.
Many religious conservatives worry that if Mitt Romney becomes president, it will help legitimize LDS missionary work abroad and condemn extra converts to hell. Liberals, meanwhile, see a chance to use his faith to show he is "too weird" to be president.
That is according to conservative evangelical radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who just wrote a book titled, "A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney." It is published by Regnery Publishing, which prints conservative titles.
Presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said faith is important to him, but voters should look at a person's entire character when choosing a president and not focus on just one area.
Romney made his comments Thursday night on CNN during an interview with Larry King.
A phone poll for King's TV show found that 63 percent of respondents believe religion should matter when considering a presidential candidate.
How much of a "Mormon question" does former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney face in his presidential campaign? According to recent polls, a quarter of Americans say they wouldn't vote for a Mormon as president. That compares with only 5 percent who say they wouldn't vote for a Catholic or a Jew.
Romney's biggest problem is with evangelicals, who constitute nearly half of all Republican primary voters in the South and more than one-third in the Midwest. A Rasmussen poll shows that 53 percent of evangelicals wouldn't vote for a Mormon as president.
America is supposed to be a country of religious tolerance. Just ask anybody — except, maybe, Mitt Romney. Almost 50 years after John F. Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association — an act seen as tabling the issue of religion in presidential politics — the campaign of the former governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney, is still being dogged by religious prejudices.
D. Kyle Sampson has never worked full time as a federal prosecutor. But for much of the Bush administration he played a considerable role in vetting who served in the Justice Department. And last year he used his post as chief of staff to the attorney general to make a bid for a job as a United States attorney in Utah.
In many ways, until his resignation Monday, the rapid rise of Mr. Sampson, from a low-level aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee to one of the most senior advisers to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, is like that of many other young, ambitious lawyers who come to Washington with a passion for politics.
To Romney strategist, questions on faith fair game
It's appropriate for the public to ask questions about Mitt Romney's Mormon faith as he pursues his presidential campaign, a top Romney campaign strategist said yesterday.
Strategist Alex Castellanos was speaking at a forum of Republican presidential advisers held at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He was asked why the media seemed to be celebrating the fact that the country may elect its first African-American or woman president, but treating the specter of its first Mormon president with suspicion.
Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney have emerged as the leading presidential favorites among party insiders, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll, which found deep partisan divisions over the country's direction and top issues in the 2008 campaign.
The survey showed former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in second place among Democratic Party leaders, ahead of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. It pointed up danger signs for Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who trailed Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the leader among Republicans in national voter surveys.
If Republicans pick Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate and the country elects him to the White House, the Mormon Church will seize the Oval Office and realize its long-held political ambition.
Does anyone apparently believe that kind of gibberish? Apparently, alas.
Religion – that is, having a preference for a particular religion or denomination – is one of the key traits voters say they look for in a presidential candidate. And not believing in God is a major electoral turnoff, according to a new poll of voters.
CHARLES DUNN: Romney could do for Mormons what JFK did for Catholics
In 1960, the junior senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, surprised political pundits by breaking through the anti-Catholic barrier and winning the Democratic Party's presidential nomination against the opposition of two long-powerful senators, Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson.
Today's political pundits discount the chances of a Mormon former governor from Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, in his battle against two better-known candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain and "America's mayor," Rudolph Giuliani.
Just hours after announcing his 2008 presidential bid on David Letterman's late-night television show, Arizona Sen. John McCain arrived in Utah Thursday for an overnight stay that includes meetings with a fellow Republican, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
McCain collected more than $150,000 at a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser held in a Federal Heights home and is scheduled to raise more money from Utahns before leaving the state this morning. He will also address a group of financial executives meeting in Deer Valley.
Days before presidential candidate John McCain visits Utah, his campaign says the Arizona senator condemns any attack against his opponent, Mitt Romney, over his Mormon faith.
It's an issue that has been popping up recently in South Carolina, a primary state that is home to many evangelical voters and one that Romney has visited often in recent months.
"A presidential contest is a leadership test, not a religious one," McCain spokesman Danny Diaz said Tuesday when asked whether the senator denounces such attacks.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is the clear favorite in early polls for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. So, what does that mean? Not a lot, if history is any guide.
Republican hopeful Rudy Giuliani, however, is sitting pretty.
For at least three decades, Republicans have been far better than Democrats in early polls at getting behind the candidates who end up winning the party's presidential nomination.
Even before Mitt Romney's presidential announcement last week, his Mormon faith was becoming the hottest "religious issue" since 1960, when John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, became the first - and still only - non-Protestant to be elected president in U.S. history. This week, for instance, a USA Today cover story asked: "Will Mormon faith hurt bid for White House?" In December, Time magazine wondered: "Can a Mormon be President?"
While other Mormons hold important posts in Washington - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the highest-ranking elected Mormon in the land - Romney is the first member of what is officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have a shot at a major party nomination for president. Thus the questions about a church that some have accused of being little more than a cult.
Mitt Romney ventured to redrock country Wednesday in hopes of raking in more campaign green.
And Dixie delivered, aides say, to the tune of $250,000 to $300,000 in what is believed to be the largest political fundraiser ever staged in southern Utah.
Haynes: Romney’s religion shouldn’t matter, but it does
Where Mitt Romney goes to church doesn’t disqualify him for public office: Article VI of the U.S. Constitution famously declares that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
But when the former Massachusetts governor declared his candidacy for president Feb. 13, news coverage focused heavily on one issue: Romney’s Mormon faith. Officially we have no religious test — but unofficially, religious affiliation (or lack thereof) can determine the outcome of elections.
Utahns shell out up to $2,300 each to help boost Mitt
Some 500 Utahns contributed as much as $2,300 each to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign at a Tuesday evening fund-raiser in Salt Lake City that included an endorsement from a majority of state GOP lawmakers.
Politics and religion were front and center on the campaign trail in a heated exchange for Mitt Romney this weekend. Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints are trying to make the topic of faith a polite conversation.
Traditional Christians have long had problems with some Latter-day Saint beliefs, as was the case in Florida this weekend. This is the reason for an ongoing event called "An Evangelical and a Mormon in Conversation."
Evangelicals Urged not to Shun Romney over his Mormonism
A law professor and conservative talk-show host says Republican presidential candidate "Mitt Romney has a Mormon problem -- and so does the rest of the country." He cautions Christians against criticizing the candidate's Mormon beliefs during the campaign, saying such an approach will inevitably backfire.
Mitt Romney spent last week on a presidential candidate announcement tour, speaking in Michigan and Iowa on Tuesday, then hitting South Carolina, New Hampshire and Boston before heading to Florida. Today, in the second installment of Outlook's occasional series on the presidential candidates, classmates, colleagues and competitors from the past remember Romney and his journey from former governor's son to former governor. Also inside: a crash course on the Mormon faith and public life.
Feb. 18, 2007 — Following is a transcript of George Stephanopoulos' interview with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Romney's wife Ann on "This Week."
Am I the only practicing Mormon who's not excited about Mitt Romney's run for president? It's not like his first order of business will be a $10,000 tax credit for all Latter-Day Saints. (But imagine what that would do for the missionary effort.) In my mind there's very little to be gained from Romney's candidacy, and a great deal to be lost.
