Romney helps Otter reach out to LDS voters
Governor’s poll rating lower in Mormon-heavy area of state
BOISE – Idaho Gov. Butch Otter brought in former presidential candidate Mitt Romney to stump for him Wednesday in Idaho Falls and Boise in an effort to pump up support among LDS voters in southern and eastern Idaho.
Idaho Falls businessman Frank VanderSloot, who hosted the Idaho Falls campaign stop at his Melaleuca Inc. headquarters, rallied the crowd in Boise, saying Otter’s Democratic challenger, Keith Allred, has been sending eastern Idaho Mormons the message, “I’m Mormon, so vote for me because I’m one of you guys.” VanderSloot said, “My answer to that is, well, Harry Reid is a Mormon.”
Between a quarter and a third of Idaho’s population belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Romney and VanderSloot are members, as is Allred. Otter is Catholic.
Allred recently announced the support of a number of prominent eastern Idaho Republicans, many of whom are LDS. The recent Idaho Newspapers Poll showed Otter ahead of Allred statewide 45 percent to 29 percent, but in southeastern Idaho, which has the state’s heaviest concentration of LDS church membership, that lead shrank to 42 percent to 36 percent.
“It’s unfortunate that Frank VanderSloot wants to use religious and partisan labels to distract people from the actual positions held by the candidates,” Allred said Wednesday. “I stand for keeping taxes low on Idaho families and providing a great education for Idaho school kids. These are priorities that Republicans and Democrats, Mormons and non-Mormons alike support. … It’s precisely because my priorities are resonating so well with Idahoans that Butch Otter has asked Mitt Romney to ride to his rescue.”
Romney, who campaigned for Otter in Idaho when he ran for governor four years ago, told a cheering crowd of more than 100 at the Linen Building in Boise, “People recognize we’ve got a chance to get this country on the right course again.”
Jim Weatherby, political scientist emeritus at Boise State University, said, “I’m not surprised Otter brought Romney in, not for his support of a health care mandate in Massachusetts, but for his popularity in eastern Idaho.” Otter opposes a government mandate that individuals purchase health insurance; Idaho is suing the federal government over the issue. Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, enacted a mandate there as a key part of that state’s health care reforms.
The LDS vote, Weatherby said, is “a significant factor in eastern Idaho, where Butch Otter has not run very strongly.”
Otter said, “Mitt and I have very similar value systems, and I consider him a close friend and confidant.”