Romney troubled but not surprised by anti-LDS talk

Published: Sunday, June 24, 2007 12:17 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who spent just over 24 hours in Utah on a fund-raising stop, said Saturday he's not surprised that "troubling" comments have been made by other campaigns about his Mormon beliefs.

"Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone's faith, those comments are troubling, and the fact that they keep on coming up is even more troubling," Romney told reporters before attending the first of three fund-raising events scheduled throughout the state.

But the former leader of Salt Lake City's 2002 Winter Olympics also said he expected his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to attract negative comments during the race for the White House.

"When you get in the kitchen, you expect it to be warm," said Romney, who served a term as governor of his longtime home state, Massachusetts, following the Olympics. "And I'm not surprised."

He did, however, suggest that one of the campaigns where such comments have surfaced hasn't made enough of an effort to apologize — that of Sen. John McCain, one of the top three GOP contenders.

McCain trails Romney among Utah voters but has the backing of several prominent politicians in the state, including Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who is scheduled to campaign for McCain on Monday in Reno and Las Vegas.

Story continues below

Romney said he has not heard personally from McCain about the latest incident, involving an Iowa campaign chairman for McCain who, according to the Boston Globe, told a GOP gathering in April about allegations the LDS Church helped fund a terrorist organization and compared the church's treatment of women to the Taliban's.

Asked if the senator from Arizona should apologize to him, Romney said, "Absolutely, he can do whatever he feels is the right thing. There's no need for me to suggest how people respond to things that go on in their campaigns."

A spokeswoman for McCain, Brooke Buchanan, said in an e-mail Saturday that "the campaign has apologized." She also referred to statements McCain made after an earlier incident involving critical comments linked to his campaign about Mormons.

McCain said during his fund-raising efforts in Utah in March that he "would immediately condemn" anyone associated with his campaign engaging in what he called "disgraceful and dishonorable" behavior.

Romney said two other Republicans in the race, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, did apologize to him personally after their staffers circulated what was seen as negative information about the LDS Church.

Brownback's campaign reprimanded a staffer for sending an e-mail suggesting "the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith," according to ABC News. And Giuliani's campaign said an e-mail from a staffer forwarding a story about Romney possibly fulfilling a Mormon legend was "a regrettable mistake."

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image
Kristin Nichols, Deseret Morning News

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stopped in Salt Lake City on Saturday morning for a fund-raiser at EnergySolutions Arena.

previousnext

Latest comments

Utah's lessons for California

jealous mormons | 7:33 a.m. How do you figure that Utahns (Not only...

Mr. Paxson DO NOT make this trade! As a Bulls fan in Utah, I have watched...

carbon credits to conduct the burning? Or was there a big pollution taxe paid...

Pratt needs to go to prison. Not only did he ruin his life but he also ruined...

Sentencing for con man moved

did feds get overhanded in this case...if so there should be an outcry!

This wasn't just Geithner, Rubin and Greenspan. Officials in every...

Bro. Pratt taught me in high school too. This doesn't sound like anything he...

Obama controls all

@ Darrell I never said this was my standard of a good President, I just...

Kill hate-crimes bill

The law already takes into account whether or not a crime was premeditated....

Skeptics not heretics

To "A Rudd | 12:43 p.m." when you say global warming, you better define what...

Advertisements