Religion emerges front-and-center in Idaho race | Idaho | Idaho Statesman
BOISE, Idaho — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's didn't play up his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during Wednesday's campaign swing through Idaho's capital.
But his faith still played a front-and-center role, as Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter invited him for a visit aimed partly at luring members of the faith to vote for the incumbent.
Otter is a Catholic. His opponent, Keith Allred - like Romney - is a Mormon, a faith whose members make up nearly a third of Idaho's population.
At an event just west of Boise's downtown, Frank Vandersloot, the Mormon multimillionaire owner of Idaho Falls-based health care products company Melaleuca Inc., spoke before Romney and put religion in plain view.
Vandersloot accused Allred of pandering to church members in order to secure votes - a charge Allred denied later in the day.
"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 told about 150 Otter supporters. "My answer to that is, well, Harry Reid is a Mormon."
Reid, the Democratic U.S. Senate majority leader, is a member of the church from Nevada.
Allred said it was inappropriate to inject religion into the debate.
"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 in a statement.
Allred is seen as a potentially strong contender in east Idaho, a Mormon stronghold where he has secured the endorsement of several prominent Mormon Republicans. Mormon Democrats in eastern Idaho have enjoyed success: former U.S. Rep. Richard Stallings represented the region from 1985 to 1993.
Romney appears to have become the go-to guy for non-Mormon GOP candidates looking to establish more credibility with church members.
Romney, a 2008 GOP presidential candidate, made stops in Idaho Falls and Boise campaigning for Otter, just as he did in 2006.
"Mitt helps in the LDS community," Otter campaign spokesman Ryan Panitz said. "For better or for worse, that's politics."
A married father of three, Allred, 46, has been an LDS bishop, including while teaching at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
Shea Andersen, his spokesman, says he's heard of a "whisper campaign," where some GOP supporters contend Allred is relying on his faith. Andersen said it's not true.
"Show me the press release, show me the news statement where we've done that," Andersen said. "They can't."
As a divorcee arrested for drunken driving in the early 1990s while Idaho's lieutenant governor, Otter's well-publicized past may be subject to scrutiny by some in a church whose members are taught not to drink.
That's where Romney - and Vandersloot - may come in, providing a public show of support for Otter.
"You have in Gov. Otter a governor who holds firm to the conviction that the people of Idaho know what's best for Idaho," Romney told a cheering, partisan crowd in Boise. "When things are in the doldrums, that's when you test the real mettle of a leader."
Otter, who remarried in 2006, downplayed any religious overtones to Romney's visit, saying they shared similar values: Limited government, character and fiscal conservatism.
"I'm a Catholic, and I've got a value system I grew up with," he told The Associated Press after he and Romney spoke to the crowd. "I know Mitt has got a lot of values he grew up with, too. Those are awful close together."
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