That leaves Republican frontrunner John McCain, who isn't on Utahns' good list either, and Democrats Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. A Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll Thursday had McCain at 30 percent, Obama at 25 percent and Clinton at 11 percent.

Romney leaned heavily on Mormon voters in states like Nevada, where there are a sizable number of LDS voters, as well as in California, where he didn't fare well. Even in Michigan, many of the Romney supporters turning out for rallies were Mormon.

He won Nevada's GOP caucus on Jan. 19 with exit polls showing about half of his overall vote came from Mormons. That because a whopping 95 percent of the caucusgoers who identified themselves as Mormon said they voted for Romney.

Kelly Patterson, head of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, said Romney not only didn't hurt the prospects of the next LDS candidate for president, he likely helped.

"I don't think it bodes ill for future LDS candidates," Patterson said. "One thing you can probably say with a higher degree of certainty is that he has probably made it easier for the next LDS candidate, because next time, it will be old news."

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