Irking LDS, GOP may not hinder Rocky

While a new survey shows a majority favor re-electing Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and that he still leads his challengers, the poll also found that the mayor has fallen out of favor with LDS and Republican Salt Lakers.

Anderson, who is running for re-election this year, had improved his standing among conservative members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Salt Lake City, pollster Dan Jones & Associates found in a poll taken for the Deseret News and KSL-TV last fall.

But a new survey by Jones finds that Anderson has fallen back to the dismal figures recorded in April 2001 among those two demographic groups.

About one-third of city residents say they are Republicans, one-third Democrats and one-third independents, Jones' survey shows. About 45 percent say they are LDS, the rest other religions or having no religion. The city population has fewer Mormons and Republicans than most other areas in Utah.

Thus, having Mormons and Republicans against you is not politically fatal in Salt Lake City, where it would be in nearly all other geographic areas of the state.

Anderson is a non-Mormon Democrat who has had public disagreements with the GOP-dominated Legislature. He has also butted heads with LDS Church leaders over the public easement on the Main Street Plaza, which the church bought from the city before Anderson's 1999 mayoral victory.

While Anderson may feel he's improved relations with the Legislature, and his compromise on the plaza, endorsed by church leaders, appears headed for approval in the City Council, the new poll results show that some groups of city residents are frowning again upon the mayor.

However, in the new poll Anderson continues to be well thought of by non-Mormons and Democrats and does well, also, among independent voters, Jones found.

In April 2001, 61 percent of Mormon Salt Lakers didn't like the job Anderson was doing. By September 2002, that number dropped to 42 percent. But in a survey conducted last week, 67 percent of Salt Lake Mormons disapprove of the job Anderson is doing — his worst rating among Mormons yet.

Those numbers flip for non-Mormons. Among several religious groups, like Catholics and Protestants, and those with no religion, Anderson's approval ratings soar — between 79 percent and 82 percent, Jones found.