LDS Church Letter May Have Raised Primary Turnout

KSL News ^ | 6/30/06 | (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[colorcountry]

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Some political observers are wondering whether a Mormon church statement urging members to vote in Tuesday's primary may have boosted turnout and helped five-term incumbent Republican Rep. Chris Cannon turn back challenger John Jacob.

"Between the president and Mrs. Bush's endorsement (of Cannon) and the church's statement from the pulpit -- those were the two biggest factors that helped Cannon in his re-election," said Ron Fox, who helped run Bush's Utah campaign in 2000 and 2004.

"I think the church's desires were to get people to the polls and vote and I think, as a byproduct, it assisted Cannon in his re-election," he told The Salt Lake Tribune.

The turnout in the 3rd District primary was higher than in the 2004 primary.

The race had focused on immigration issues, with businessman Jacob accusing Cannon of supporting President Bush's policies, while Jacob opposed any guest-worker or amnesty programs.

Getting voters to the polls had been considered vital to Cannon's chances to keep his seat.

"Turnout usually favors an incumbent in these kinds of situations because when you expand the election pool you are including voters who are going to take into consideration other factors beside the immigration issue," said Kelly Patterson, a political science professor at Brigham Young University, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Quin Monson, another BYU professor, downplayed the significance of the church letter, which he said contained fairly "standard language." However, it apparently motivated some people.

"A friend called to tell me that she voted specifically because she heard the letter on Sunday," Monson said.

Church spokesman Dale Bills said that to his knowledge, it was the first time church leaders have urged its members to vote in a primary election.

Bills said that church leaders "regularly teach that church members should make their voices heard as individual citizens of their respective nations by exercising their right to vote."

The church leaders said that they were lending their voice at the request of Joe Cannon, chairman of the Utah Republican Party and Chris Cannon's brother, and the Democratic chairman, Wayne Holland.

Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, said Joe Cannon approached Holland and suggested they make the request to the church, and the Democrats agreed.

"It's hard to quantify the impact" of the church statement, said Jeff Hartley, executive director of the Utah Republican Party.

"Based on the Utah County turnout, which was higher than anyone expected, I believe the president had a significant impact on Republican voters and I believe that the church reminding people from the pulpit had a significant impact on the Republican voters, and I hope our efforts as a party had a significant impact," he said.

Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[junta]

Its been said that the LDS' cash cow is Las Vegas and LV needs illegal immigrants like an addict needs drugs.

[Nextrush]

I think you made your case.

We need a security barrier on the border now that inlcudes a wall, fence and lots of troops to back it up.

Those 6-thousand National Guard are just window dressing for political purposes.

You know there are powerful forces that wan't to do nothing or grant amnesty without calling it that to illegals.

But I think abortion and "family planning" that mean fewer babies being born here leave our strong economy short of bodies to fill the spaces.

If you believe the country is declining you're caught in the liberal labor union lie that sees the economy in 1960's terms and not modern ones.

I think the illegals represent more traditional values (religion, large families, heterosexual) than are practiced by the people born here. Not all are the criminals you described.

I have a book written in 1949 by a liberal Unitarian that says the religion most often cited by prison inmates back then was "Catholic" and he followed it by saying Catholics should be ashamed so many of them are criminals even though they aren't that much of the population.

Lets not descend into bigotry but let us enforce the law.
The law is being broken and I find it hard to accept the excuses like we can't practically enforce it and return them back where they came from by the millions.

The lack of obedience and the ability to enforce hasn't stopped the President and Republican leaders from advocating pro-life laws that liberals routinely say will be broken in "back alleys."

Now get me straight I think we need some of the 11 million etc. that are here as I stated above. But we need to secure the border and enforce the law, too. NO EXUCSES.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

I thought the devil was behind Jacob's loss.

It was the LDS hierarchy all along.

Oh, and those hands of five card stud at the Riviera.
_______________________________________________________

I'm about to get flamed BUT...

some would say the devil = LDS hierarchy

[onyx]

And those who would say that would be both rude and ignorant, wouldn't they?

[batter]

I didn't do anything but post a thread. What's your problem?

I would just ignore Dane (Marco D) if I were you. He's always in a foul mood and just can't rationally debate an issue. Ultimately the guy, IMO, addicted to attacking any oppositions' race and religion.

As for the LDS letter, they always read these things (as I understand it) during each election (quite a few Churches from several denominations do). I doubt the letter(s) had much to do with turnout etc - parishioners are too used to ignoring them already ;-p.

[onyx]

Ping to post #45.
The poster neglected to ping you.

[batter]

I didn't neglect to do so. I was just talking to colorcountry. Dane just isn't worth even attempting to debate (see Dane's immigration posts for examples of what I mean). Heck I'll answer for him now: Soccer8, you're a racist and don't follow your religion. Tancredo sucks, Cannon rules.

ZZZZZZZ

[onyx]

It's FR etiquette: ping the posters we talk about.

[Sundog]

All we are commenting on is the media making a big deal of the statistical observation that increasing the turnout favors the incumbent.

The LDS church acted to increase the turnout.

This was reported as the LDS church favoring the incumbent.

[batter]

Point well taken. Will do in the future (I can always just ignore their posts anyway). Thanks for putting me back on the 'straight 'n narrow' onyx.

[Arizona Carolyn]

thank you..

[Arizona Carolyn]

According to reports during Vincente Fox's visit there last month, the church is a huge supporter of illegal immigration. Has a lot to do with increasing the mormon population in Mexico, which is the fastest growing religion there.... I found it very interesting to learn Mitt Romney's family is from Mexico and he still has a lot of relations there.

[Texasforever]

Wow. You were posting for 2 weeks about how the LDS was against illegal immigration and that Cannon was toast. Do you really think you can get away with that on FR?

[Arizona Carolyn]

You have me mixed up with someone else, because I never said the LDS Church is against illegal immigration -- especially since I saw a report when Fox was here about how the church supports illegal immigration and why they support illegal immigration.

[no dems]

If everyone who votes Democrat would ever take time to read the Democratic Party Platform, I guarantee you that about 25% of them would never vote Democrat again.

[Texasforever]

Here is your prediction based on turn-out

Posted by Arizona Carolyn to NordP; Extremely Extreme Extremist

On News/Activism ^ 06/26/2006 11:41:20 PM CDT · 114 of 166 ^

and, if you read the blogs in the local news for Utah, you know that the turnout is going to be huge tomorrow and most people say they are voting to vote against Cannon. He is not a popular man. ,p. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post Reply | Private Reply | To 110 | View Replies

[Arizona Carolyn]

I'm confused. Where does that say anything about the Church of Latter Day Saints?

I based my inaccurate prediction on polls and intuition... which was wrong. No where did I say anything about the stance the church takes on illegal immigrants, because I have known that was a real wild card.

BTW I have a lot of friends in that district of Utah -- and they tell me they did not vote for various reasons and they, too, felt Jacob would win. So even people living there were wrong -- in more ways than one.

[Texasforever]

I used LDS to mean Mormons and you were all telling us how we didn't understand Mormons when it came to this election.

[Arizona Carolyn]

If you re-read what I said -- I was specifically referring to the Church in my statement. If you want to beat up on me for fun, have at it, but at least read what I say before you accuse me of saying something I didn't say. Here is what I said in my first post, here, on the subject.

According to reports during Vincente Fox's visit there last month, the church is a huge supporter of illegal immigration

As you can see, I said "the church" -- the subject of the article we are discussing -- not the Mormon people who were discussed in many previous discussions over the past few weeks.

[Texasforever]

It doesn't make any difference what the "Church" stance was you and colorcountry that were both "educating all of us about how its members were feeling about illegal immigration and predicting a win for Jacobs because of it.