Romney attends Mormon leader's rites
SALT LAKE CITY -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took a detour from the campaign trail Saturday to be at the funeral of his spiritual leader, the prophet of the Mormon Church.
With just days to go until 21 states divvy up Republican delegates in Super Tuesday contest that appears John McCain's to lose, Romney was to pause with hundreds of thousands of his fellow Mormons to say good-bye to Gordon Hinckley, 97, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The popular church leader who shepherded the Mormon Church through a massive worldwide expansion died Sunday.
Although Hinckley's funeral was to be broadcast in 69 languages to more than 6,000 LDS sites around the world, it wasn't clear whether non-Mormon voters preoccupied with Sunday's Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants would take notice.
For Mormons, though, the passing of the longtime Mormon leader has been a major event. Thousands of faithful waited for hours in the mountain chill to view Hinckley's body in Temple Square's Hall of the Prophets. Flags were flown at half staff. Mourners streamed into the 21,000-seat Mormon Conference Center as the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang hymns, accompanied by the facility's massive, 7,708-pipe organ.
In a bind
Romney met Hinckley when he was president of the Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee in 2002 and again just before he launched his presidential campaign.
The former Massachusetts governor, who sat with members of his family in the second row from the front, was one of several prominent Mormons at the service. Among those in the first row were Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, both Republicans.
"He could not not be there," said University of Utah political scientist Matthew Burbank of Romney. "Given the world of (Mormon) political insiders, this is an absolute must-attend."
Romney staffers described the visit as strictly non-political.
"This is a personal visit," said Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's traveling press secretary. "The governor is not doing any politicking in the state of Utah. He's here to pay his respects."
Yet with McCain's momentum-inducing victory in Florida and Romney behind in polls and high-profile endorsements — the Arizona senator snagged California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani this week — Romney can ill-afford the break.
"He's in a bind," says Jan Shipps, a Mormon expert at Indiana University-Purdue University. "If he goes (to the funeral) people will say, 'Oh, his religion is more important than his campaign.' If he doesn't go, people will say, 'He doesn't care about his religion, he cares about politics.' "
It is unclear whether attending the Mormon equivalent of a pope's funeral for Roman Catholics would help or hurt a campaign that by some measures may already be struggling.
John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, says media images of Romney at the funeral of a Mormon icon "could make his faith more salient" to evangelical Christians in the Southern primary states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, where he is battling with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for conservative votes.
Still, says Green, results in New Hampshire and Michigan showed Romney did well in counties with large numbers of evangelicals. That, he says, indicates that "skepticism about voting for a Mormon has declined a bit since last summer."
An August poll by the Pew Forum found just 53% of the public held a favorable opinion of Mormons. Among evangelical Republicans, 36% said they were less likely to vote for a Mormon candidate.
Attendees at Saturday's funeral saw Romney's presence as a good thing, regardless of how non-Mormons view their religion.
"He needs to be here and he can't worry about all the criticism," said Salt Lake City resident Susie Luthy, 65, who described herself as an undecided independent. "He has to do what's right and what's right is to honor our prophet."
Pausing the campaign for the funeral won't hurt Romney's political chances, said Christi Martin, a Romney supporter who came from Phoenix for the funeral. "Most people have their mind set already," Martin said.
Bishop Romney
In a Dec. 6 speech designed to ease concerns, Romney said he believed in "the faith of my fathers" but uttered the word "Mormon" just once and said church authorities would play no role in decisions he made as president. Beyond that, he offered few details of his involvement with the church.
But in an essay published this week, Utah State University professor Philip Barlow writes of Romney's 1980s stint as the equivalent of a pastor in Belmont, Mass. Barlow, chairman of Mormon Studies at Utah State, was one of two "counselors" with whom Romney formed the local bishopric.
"Bishop Romney was ultimately responsible for planning the ward's worship services; fostering the physical, social, spiritual, and economic needs of church members … interviewing individual members for 'worthiness' to enter the temple … and coordinating with ecclesiastical superiors," writes Barlow in the latest issue of Religion in the News, published by the The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, at Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn.
He described Romney as an "effective" leader.
In more temporal matters, Romney raised $9 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 but dipped into his own pocket for twice that for a campaign loan of $18 million. Romney has pumped $36.5 million of his own money into his presidential bid. The campaign said it plans to spend $2 million to $3 million on TV ads between now and Tuesday.
Federal financial disclosure reports peg Romney's net worth at between $190 million and $250 million.
Despite personal cash infusions, the Republican who touts his business acumen "hasn't gotten a very good return on his investment," cracked Sen. Barack Obama at Thursday's Democratic presidential debate.
Romney lags behind McCain in delegate-rich states like California, New York and Illinois. Polls show him leading in his home state of Massachusetts and here in Utah, where his Mormon faith and success in rescuing the scandal-plagued 2002 Winter Olympics make him a heavy favorite.
After Hinckley's funeral, Romney was to fly to Minneapolis for an evening event timed for Tuesday's Minnesota caucuses. No delegates will be awarded at the straw polls.
A state poll released Thursday by Minnesota Public Radio and the Humphrey Institute showed McCain with 41%, followed by Huckabee at 22% and Romney at 17%.
"Romney is far back and may be out of the race in Minnesota," said Larry Jacobs, head of the Humphrey Institute's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Jacobs sees McCain "dominating" the state, while Huckabee is "crippling" Romney's chances.
Romney plans stops Sunday in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. On Monday, he flies to Atlanta and then to West Virginia, where the state's GOP convention is expected to give Romney the first hint whether Tuesday will be super for him or something entirely different.