Mitt Romney has not even officially declared his candidacy for the presidency yet, and he hasn't lived in Utah in four years, but you wouldn't know it from the flurry of denials, apologies, clarifications and official declarations this past week in the Utah capital.

It's started before it's started.

The Romney non-campaign already has its own Deep Throat — namely the nameless source who delivered to the Boston Globe copies of e-mails written by Romney political consultant Don Stirling and sent to Deseret Book CEO Sheri Dew that reference the building of a network of influential LDS Church members-for-Romney with an alleged complicit nod from church leadership.

The e-mails brought Boston Globe reporters to Salt Lake City last month to stake out the Church Office Building so they could report watching "Romney's representatives enter and leave church headquarters."

I called Michael Levenson, one of the Globe reporters whose byline is on the Romney-LDS connection stories, to ask if he was one of those reporters and if they did their staking out at the food court across the street, which is what I would have done.

But Levenson treated me like I was from the media and said all that he could say was that he couldn't comment.

One person who did comment was longtime Romney friend and former Boyer Co. president Kem Gardner, one of the aforementioned "Romney's representatives" who entered church headquarters, thereby adding to the perception of an official church-campaign link that has since been roundly denied by Romney supporters and church officials.

"I'm to blame for this whole mess," Gardner told the Salt Lake Tribune, and he wasn't talking about the state of downtown Salt Lake City on account of the Boyer Co. developing The Gateway.

He was talking about the mess associated with a newspaper reporting that a church is campaigning for a political candidate, which would be against campaign law and could jeopardize the church's nonprofit status.

That happens, and tithing goes to 20 percent.

Clearly, Romney, who is stepping down as Massachusetts governor after one term, and the Boston Globe have developed a terrific relationship the past four years.

Also clear: If you're running for president of the United States, or even thinking about it, count on nothing going unnoticed.

The only secret remaining is who leaked those Stirling e-mails to the Globe. Whoever did isn't confessing, and the Globe isn't talking. I know. I already asked.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.