'Religion card' not in play in Salt Lake mayor's race

Toward the end of each of Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's elections, in 1999 and 2003, Anderson played what some have called the "LDS card."

Anderson strongly hinted that his final election opponent would not stand up to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and would bend to any pressure by LDS Church leaders on any number of non-religious, civic issues — while he would not.

While Anderson, who was raised in the LDS Church but is not a practicing Mormon, was leading in public opinion polls in both those elections, his "playing the LDS card" seemed to solidify his political base, and he easily won. Numerous polls of those elections showed that Anderson by far got the non-Mormon, Democratic and independent vote, while his challenger got most of the GOP LDS vote.

But both mayoral candidates this year — Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler — say they will not play the religion card. And both men say it would be wrong and politically divisive to do so.

"I would not expect this of Ralph, and he personally has not done so," said Buhler, who is a member of the LDS Church. "But certainly some of his supporters have already done so — and you can see that ugly (religious) undercurrent in some of the comments that have been posted on (mayoral) stories on the Web sites of The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News."

Not being a member of the LDS Church, the religion tactic would likely fall to Becker, who holds a double-digit lead over Buhler in the latest Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll.

However, the candidates' religion "has not been discussed by anyone in my campaign, not by me," said Becker. "And you certainly won't see that from me. It is not something that I would ever do."

Buhler said Anderson has accused him personally of being beholden to the LDS Church a number of times. Anderson "is still hitting me with that in this campaign," said Buhler, although it has never been the case during his time on the City Council and would not be true should he win the mayorship. Anderson is now endorsing Becker for mayor.

"I would hope that Ralph would do whatever he can to stop this rumor — that I am a tool of the LDS Church," said Buhler, who added that while the tactic may have worked for Anderson before, "it is very divisive in the community, and not fair to any of us."

Becker said he's not sure that Anderson's tactics did really work for him. "I can't say why people chose to vote one way or the other." And bringing religion into a political campaign may hurt more than it helps. But that's not a concern of his, said Becker, since he would never try to use someone's religion in any case.