Mitt's faith diminishing as issue?

LUTZ, Fla. — Mitt Romney's religion may be becoming less of an issue with voters — at least in Florida.

At a GOP debate in Fort Lauderdale this week, moderator Brian Williams, the NBC News anchor, said a new poll for NBC and the Wall Street Journal found that 44 percent of the voters questioned said a Mormon president would have a difficult time uniting the country.

But according to the poll, 49 percent of the 1,008 people interviewed said a Mormon — a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — would make "no difference either way" in their decision-making. The poll also found that 46 percent of those surveyed said an "evangelical Baptist preacher" would have a hard time uniting the country, with only 40 percent saying that the preacher would make no difference either way. GOP candidate Mike Huckabee is a former evangelical preacher. The margin of error of the poll of 1,008 Floridians is a plus or minus 3 percent.

Of those polled, 41 percent said they would be "comfortable" with a Mormon candidate and 29 percent "had some reservations." The poll's LDS-oriented questions did not ask anything about Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, by name but instead asked similar questions about candidates who might be a woman, an African-American, an evangelical preacher or a person over 70 — characteristics pertinent in one way or another to all of the current Republican and Democratic candidates.

Romney's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been a topic of discussion since his campaign started.

Romney told Williams during the debate that Americans are not going to pick a president just based on what church a candidate attends.

And Romney's supporters of various faiths seem to agree.

Jose Casas, of St. Cloud, Fla., said religion shouldn't be a factor. "I know that he is a man of faith, and I do disagree, of course, with pretty much the doctrines of his denomination. But I think I am electing a president, I am not electing him to be the pastor of my church, and I am willing to support him regardless of his religion," said Casas, who is a Southern Baptist and described himself as an evangelical Christian.

He said he had no concerns that LDS Church leaders in Salt Lake City would be dictating to a Romney White House.

Judith Huffer, a Methodist from Crystal River, Fla., said it's not what a candidate's faith is but that he has faith and shares the same views on issues.

Huffer attended a campaign event in Lutz wearing a 2002 Winter Olympics Roots beret that was immensely popular during the Salt Lake City Games.

She wore the hat to the event "because it is just a symbol of what the man does," Huffer said, saying she had feared during her plans to attend the Games that they wouldn't happen. "He just goes in and alakazam, it's fixed."

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