Religion re-enters Salt Lake mayoral race

Salt Lake City politics in the early 1900s had an ugly twist: Candidates and officeholders were judged by whether they were Mormons or "gentiles."

In time, however, the political issue of one's religion melted away into discussions of economic development, zoning, water, parks and traffic.

But the old days have returned, to an extent, says pollster Dan Jones, in this year's Salt Lake mayor race between incumbent Mayor Rocky Anderson and challenger Frank Pignanelli — although neither candidate is Mormon.

"Religion is playing a dominant role in this (the 2003 Salt Lake City mayor's) race. Whether we like it or not, it has," says Jones, who has polled in Utah for 30 years. "My polling shows religion is more prominent in this race than in any other contest I've seen in Utah."

To illustrate how much the city's political climate has changed, former Mayor Palmer DePaulis recalls how when he was elected in 1985 little mention if any was made that he was the city's first Catholic mayor.

And religion wasn't a factor in issues at City Hall as it is now.

"Absolutely, I feel religious tensions in the city," said DePaulis, who lives near Liberty Park. "It's very unfortunate. It's not healthy."

The resurgence of a Mormon/non-Mormon split was first recognized in the 1999 election, says Jones, who is also a political science professor at the University of Utah.

Exit polls conducted for KSL-TV in 1999 showed that then-candidate Anderson, who belongs to no organized religion, got only 28 percent of the LDS vote. His challenger, Stuart Reid, an active Mormon, received 72 percent of the Mormon vote.

Two years after his election, Anderson's job performance polls showed he had turned half of his LDS detractors into supporters.

But when Anderson took a stand to keep a free-speech easement on the LDS Church-owned Main Street Plaza, the religious split surfaced again. Then Anderson wondered aloud if City Council members who were active in the LDS Church could make an unbiased decision on the plaza.

The religion question softened some after the council adopted the compromise brokered by Anderson and the Alliance for Unity, a group of civic, business and religious leaders the mayor co-founded.