"He had high credentials in and out of the church," said Garff, a member of one of the church's presiding councils, the Quorums of the Seventy, and a former speaker of the Utah House of Representatives. "It would have been a disaster if we just picked a stranger and they didn't understand the mores of this community."

Anxiety in LDS role

Almost as soon as Romney took the job, however, the LDS Church's role in the Games became a source of contention — a dispute exacerbated by Romney's request for an additional $8 million in loaned property and cash from the church, among other contributions.

With Romney having been chosen in part because of his LDS credentials, some people in Utah — including some LDS leaders —feared that the church could be the next target of scandal-mongers.

After all, the church had played a significant role in the Olympic movement. In a state where nearly every political leader and an estimated 70 percent of the population was LDS, President Gordon B. Hinckley made no secret that he viewed the Games as a vehicle to fulfill pioneer Brigham Young's prophesy that Salt Lake City would "become the great highway of the nations."

"Kings and emperors and the noble and the wise of the Earth will visit us here," Hinckley said, quoting Young.

Church leaders had traveled the world with the Salt Lake City organizing committee. Documents in Garff's archives at the University of Utah show church officials recommended employees to the organizers, commented on committee policies, and sought direct public relations benefits from the Games. An LDS leader, Elder Robert Hales, also met privately with an NBC executive in New York to offer the church's cooperation in the television presentation of the Games.

Romney's initial decisions, including the request for greater church contributions and the hiring of another prominent Mormon as his top assistant, Fraser Bullock, a former colleague at Bain & Co. who now serves in the church's Quorums of the Seventy, made some people anxious.

Utah's wealthiest businessman, Jon Huntsman Sr., the father of Utah's current governor, assailed Romney for exploiting his ties to the church. Huntsman himself is prominent in the LDS Church.

"'We've got a chairman who is active LDS, now we've got a present CEO who is active LDS," Huntsman was quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune as saying of Garff and Romney. "They claim they're going out (to) really scour the world to find the best person, and Mitt brings in one of his cronies to be the COO. Another broken promise. Because we've got three LDS folks who are all cronies. Cronyism at its peak. ... These are not the Mormon Games."

Huntsman, who later made peace with Romney and now serves on his campaign finance committee, did not respond to interview requests.