[Torie]

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,

Maybe the letter and the Bush calls only went out to Utah County and Salt Lake County. Whatever. The fact of the matter is that the immigration divides Mormons just like it divides GOP oriented voters generally. Normally Mormons are a very cohesive voting block. Not this time. We know that, because I suspect close to 90% of the voters were Mormon.

[Torie]

There seems to be this assertion floating around that Tancredo/Buchanan had some negative impact on Jacob's vote performance. I don't know where that comes from. It appears to me that they had no impact.

[batter]

The fact of the matter is that the immigration divides Mormons just like it divides GOP oriented voters generally.

I couldn't agree more. On the one hand, you have those who think: gee, we need to be nice because sending them back etc would be mean and "they do the jobs we won't do" (the CBS news/status quo crowd, IMO). On the other hand, you have those who are fed up and want a real solution (legal LDS immigrants, the conservative Limbaugh etc listeners, and those affected by illegal immigration - such as ID theft victims). At least that's been my experience.