Romney, Santorum bring religion into Tenn. political discussion

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 3/5/12 | Georgiana Vines

[SmithL]

Mitt Romney's Mormon faith could be a factor as Tennesseans and voters in nine other states head for the polls Tuesday and may be the reason the former Massachusetts governor is struggling for delegate votes when many pundits expected him to have the nomination within reach by now.

Religion is a factor in the 2012 Republican presidential primary in Tennessee based on the latest poll done at Middle Tennessee State University, said Ken Blake, the poll's director and an associate professor of journalism.

The poll showed Rick Santorum leading among Republicans at 40 percent; Romney getting support of 19 percent; former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 13 percent; and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 11 percent.

An analysis shows the more often a voter attends church, the more likely he or she is to vote for Santorum, Blake said Wednesday, the day the poll results were announced.

"There is a very steep trend for churchgoing Republicans to favor Santorum over Romney. They know Romney is a Mormon and they don't like that," he said.

Those considered the "most faithful," or going to church every week, favor Santorum, a Catholic who is a former Pennsylvania senator, by 61 percent, while Romney gets 11 percent of those polled, Blake said.

If they attend once a month or less, the split between Romney, with 24 percent favoring him, and Santorum, getting 22 percent, he said. If they go to church almost every week, 22 percent said they liked Romney compared to 42 percent for Santorum, Blake said.

[SmithL]

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, center, and his wife Ann, right, greet Utah Sen. Bob Bennett during the 2008 funeral service of Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Mormon church, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. If elected in November, Romney would be America's first Mormon president.

---

I won't be voting for Romney in tomorrow's Super Tuesday Primary, but come November, I will be voting for whoever isn't 0bama.

[Cindy of Nashville]

check this out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiaw0hgB-fg

[conservativejoy]

These poll numbers are very old. It’s about a 3 way tie in TN. now with Newt surging.

[ansel12]

Santorum got 42% of the white Catholic vote for reelection in 2006.

[CainConservative]

Rick Santorum 40 percent

Future planet god Romney 19 percent

Newt Gingrich 13 percent

Ron Paul 11 percent

[PeachyKeen]

“Future planet god Romney 19 percent”

LOL! So true!

[CainConservative]

“There is a very steep trend for churchgoing Republicans to favor Santorum over Romney...

Those considered the “most faithful,” or going to church every week, favor Santorum, a Catholic who is a former Pennsylvania senator, by 61 percent, while Romney gets 11 percent of those polled, Blake said.”

About 6:1 ... Rick will win TN.

[CainConservative]

Church folks VOTE : )

[itsahoot]

Only a fool thinks that Mormonism will not be a big issue, and the MSM will pile on while ignoring Islam.

[Christie at the beach]

We, the people are losing.

We are losing our country as we are watching 2 flawed contenders to go up against Obama. The left got Rush off his game and now 2 weak candidates. The repubs in charge are useless for saving our country. Palin should have got in this earlier when she said, game on... now, we have either of these 2 opportunists. Newt is the best leader hands down.

[PeachyKeen]

Yep, we know what’s coming and it ain’t gonna be pretty! I wonder if the media will bring up the white talking salamander!

[napscoordinator]

Newt is the best leader hands down.

Christie,
The guy can’t get anybody to vote for him. He has placed fourth in about 10 states now and tomorrow he will finish mostly 3rd or 4th in most states. Sorry but those are the facts. I don’t want to hurt your feelings but if Newt was Jesus Christ he would be in the same position of having nobody vote for him. You figure out a way to get votes for him and then he can save America, but until then it does not matter if he personally takes a space station up to Mars and save us all. Facts are Facts.
Sorry about your candidate and lack of voters but that is just the way it is and tomorrow will just make it worse for him. I do wish you luck tomorrow as you have 1 state that you can have.
Sincerely,
NAPS

[Bailee]

http://weaskamerica.com/2012/03/05/volunteer-surge/

Man that poll is Ancient for Tenn.

Its 30/29/29. With Newt having the Momentium.

Santorum did not even seat a full cast of delegates.

You all need to Focus on OHIO. Doubtful Santorum can hold it.

[conservativejoy]

We’ll just have to wait and see. I feel very optimistic about Newt’s chances in TN. He has risen to within 7 in Ohio, also. Santorum is descending and Newt is rising.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


====== RICK SANTORUM'S Incredible CONSERVATIVE Voting Record ======

(Source: Free Republic's Psycho-Freep, 2012-03-05)



NEA

Voted for taxpayer funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.




Bankruptcy

Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.




Defense and Foreign Policy

Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable.

Voted against requiring the President to certify that that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, and all other countries determined to be state sponsors of terror have joined CWC prior to submitting the instrument of ratification.

Voted for the START II Treaty

Voted to allow the sale of supercomputers to China.

Voted to ban antipersonnel landmines

Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.

Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same payraises as uniformed military.

Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyranical regimes such as Libya and Cuba.

Voted to limit the President’s authority to impose sanctions on nations for reasons of national security unless the sanctions were approved by a multilateral regime.

Voted against requiring Congressional authorization for military action in Bosnia.

Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea

Voted to weaken alien terrorist deportation provisions. If the Court determines that the evidence must be withheld for national security reasons, the Justice Department must still provide a summary of the evidence sufficient for the alien terrorist to mount a defense against deportation.

Voted against delaying the India Nuclear until the President certified that India had agreed to suspend military-to-military exchanges with Iran.

Voted against the Conventional Trident Missile Program




Nominations

Voted for Richard Paez to the 9th Curcuit (cloture)

Voted for Sonia Sotomayor, Circuit Judge

Voted for Richard Holbrooke to be Ambassador to the UN

Voted for Margaret Morrow to be District Judge

Voted twice for Marsha Berzon to the 9thg Circuit

Voted for Mary McLaughlin to be District Judge

Voted for Tim Dyk to be District Judge

Voted for James Brady to be District Judge




Union Labor

Voted against National Right to Work Act

Voted against Real of Davis-Bacon Prevailing union wages

Voted for Alexis Herman to be Secretary of Labor

Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding

Voted for Trade Adjustment Assistance.

Voted for Job Corps funding

Voted twice in support of Fedex Unionization

Voted against allowing a waiver of Davis-Bacon in emergency situations.

Voted for minimum wage increases six times here here here here here and here
Voted to require a union representative on an IRS oversight board.

Voted to exempt IRS union representative from criminal ethics laws.

Voted against creating independent Board of Governors to investigate IRS abuses.




Guns

Voted to require pawn shops to do background checks on people who pawn a gun.

Voted twice to make it illegal to sell a gun without a secure storage or safety device

Voted for a Federal ban on possession of “assault weapons” by those under 18.

Voted for Federal funding for anti-gun education programs in schools.

Voted for anti-gun juvenile justice bill.




Reform

Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.

Voted twice for a Congressional payraise.

Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapits, arsonists, drug kingpins, and all other ex-convicts to vote in Federal elections.

Voted for the Specter “backup plan” to allow campaign finance reform to survive if portions of the bill were found unconstitutional.

Voted to mandate discounted broadcast times for politicians.

Voted for a McCain amendment to require State and local campaign committees to report all campaign contributions to the FEC and to require all campaign contributions to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours within 90 days of an election.




Immigration

Voted against increasing the number of immigration investigators

Voted to allow illegal immigrants to receive the earned income credit before becoming citizens

Voted to give SSI benefits to legal aliens.

Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to to the earnings of their sponsors.

Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border partrol agents, paid for by reductions in state grants.




Taxes

Voted against a flat tax.

Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for Medicare prescription drugs

Voted to increase tobacco taxes to fund health insurance subsidies for small businesses.

Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an $8 billion increase in child healh insurance.

Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an increase in NIH funding.

Voted twice for internet taxes.

Voted to allow gas tax revenues to be used to subsidize Amtrak.

Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.

Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.

Voted to increase taxes by $2.3 billion to pay for an Amtrak trust fund.

Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.

Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.

Voted to say that AMT patch is more important than capital gains and dividend relief.




Welfare

Voted against food stamp reform

Voted against Medicaid reform

Voted against TANF reform

Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion

Voted to increase the FHA loan from $170,000 to $197,000. Also opposed increasing GNMA guaranty from 6 basis points to 12.

Voted for $2 billion for low income heating assistance.




Government Waste

Sponsored An amendment to increase Amtrak funds by $550 million

Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA)

Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion

Voted to increase NIH funding by $1.6 billion.

Voted to increase NIHnding by $700 million

Voted to for a $2 million earmark to renovate the Vulcan Monument (AL)

Voted for a $1 billion bailout for the steel industry

Voted against requiring that highway earmarks would come out of a state’s highway allocation

Voted to allow Market Access Program funds to go to foreign companies.

Voted to allow OPIC to increase its administrative costs by 50%

Voted against transferring $20 million from Americorps to veterans.

Voted for the $140 billion asbestos compensation bill.

Voted against requiring a uniform medical criteria to ensure asbestos claims were legitimate.

Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.




Spending and Entitlements

Voted to make Medicare part B premium subsidies an new entitlement.

Voted against paying off the debt ($5.6 trillion at the time) within 30 years.

Voted to give $18 billion to the IMF.

Voted to raid Social Security instead of using surpluses to pay down the debt.




Health Care

Voted to allow states to impose health care mandates that are stricter than proposed new Federal mandates, but not weaker.

Voted twice for Federal mental health parity mandates in health insurance.

Voted against a allow consumers the option to purchase a plan outside the parity mandate.




Education

Voted to increase Federal funding for teacher testing

Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.

Voted against requiring courts to consider the impact of IDEA awards on a local school district.




Energy

Voted to allow the President to designate certain sites as interim nuclear waste storage sites in the event that he determines that Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a permanent waste repository. Those sites are as follows: the nuclear waste site in Hanford, Washington; the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Barnwell County, South Carolina; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.

Voted to make fuel price gouging a Federal crime.





.