"It's getting more play in Utah," pollster Dan Jones said. "The way it looks today, it's not going to go away. But I do not think it's going to be a major issue," especially when the presidential primaries are more than a year away.

Jones said the story could have an impact on fund raising for Romney's political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC. A Deseret Morning News analysis earlier this year showed that nearly half of the money raised by the PAC came from Utahns.

Christopher Malone, a political science professor at Pace University in New York City, said he hadn't even heard of the issue surrounding Romney's would-be campaign. Romney is not expected to formally declare his candidacy for several months.

Malone said the story could end up helping Romney, the governor of a Democratic-dominated Northeastern state, by associating him with the much more conservative Western part of the country.

"I know that some people might say it would hurt him," Malone said, referring to the fact that, as a Mormon, Romney has to overcome concerns about the church held by some evangelical Christians in the Republican Party.

"I think what tying himself back to the church and his Western roots might do is say, 'Look, I'm a Western conservative as well.' That might help in the primaries. It has to," Malone said. "This is actually a good move by Romney."

Malone, who addressed a group of his students participating in a political internship program at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, said the story could end up motivating more Mormons to get involved in the campaign.

"There could be some movement, enthusiasm it generates without him overtly coming out and doing it," Malone said. "It could be worked to his advantage. The real issue is how he uses it."

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