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By Kent Larsen
Most Influential in Utah are Mormon
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The Deseret News yesterday started a series of
articles on the men it has identified as the most influential and powerful
in Utah. The five-part series, to be published daily through Thursday, will
include an article on each of the three men considered the most influential
of all, and articles identifying other influential Utahns.
The News articles identify President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the most influential Utahn, based on
the results of a survey of 30 Utah residents it believes "understand how the
business, political, educational, religious and cultural power levers are
pulled in the state." The survey results, which include answers to seven
issues, were collected and compiled to lists of the top three, an unranked
group rounding out the top ten, and a second-tier group, also unranked, that
round out the top 20. The newspaper also sponsored a poll by Utah pollsters
Dan Jones &Associates, which complied responses from 607 individuals in
Utah to also determine who are the most influential and powerful people in
the state.
The Deseret News' survey of 30 influential Utahns chose Utah Governor Mike
Leavitt as the second most influential Utahn, following President Hinckley,
and Billionaire Jon M. Huntsman Sr., third. But the results of the Dan Jones
telephone poll differed slightly, choosing first Governor Leavitt, then
President Hinckley, followed by US Senator Orrin Hatch. Salt Lake City mayor
Rocky Anderson was fourth, ahead of Huntsman, who was fifth. In the Dan
Jones poll, all seven people listed in the newspaper, including also SLOC
CEO Mitt Romney and US Senator Bob Bennett, are male, white and of Mormon
heritage, and only one, Mayor Anderson, is not currently an active LDS
Church member.
Yesterday's coverage included a profile of President Hinckley, who the
Deseret News says had a talent for handling the media that it matched by few
people. This ability, says the article, was evident in his early life, when
as a young missionary he spoke in London's Hyde Park, along with fellow
missionaries, "We didn't baptize many people in London in those days, but
Elder Hinckley was a knockout in those street meetings on Hyde Park corner,"
said Wendell Ashton, a friend and companion, in President Hinckley's
biography, "Go Forward With Faith," by Sheri Dew. "We learned to speak
quickly on our feet, and Elder Hinckley was the best in the bunch. He gained
tremendous firsthand experience defending the church and speaking up
courageously for its truths."
Elder Neal A. Maxwell says this ability has served the Church well, "The
Hyde Park experience; visiting with an (English) publisher (who was
misrepresenting the LDS faith); going on ("60 Minutes") with Mike Wallace,
or the Larry King show. . . . He does well with the media. He is not afraid
of them. He respects them but is not afraid."
To illustrate the influence of the top three it is profiling, the Deseret
News looked at their behind-the-scenes effort to fight crime in the state.
The effort, coming after 18 months of gang shootings and prostitution
arrests in the headlines of the Salt Lake newspapers, united Huntsman, Gov.
Leavitt and President Hinckley to change laws and get more resources to
fight crime in Utah. As a result of their efforts, the US provided Utah with
more agents to deal with immigration problems and more agents from the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to fight some of the gang
firebombings. The effort also put LDS missionaries in inner-city Salt Lake
areas, got tougher laws passed in the state, more prison beds and
intervention in the community.
Former Salt Lake mayor Ted Wilson says that sometimes this united power is
necessary, "Sometimes a problem is difficult enough, it chooses the most
powerful to deal with it. This is kind of like the Utah way of doing things.
Some problems so rattle us, we want all sectors to work together. But we're
a conservative state. We don't want government to do everything. So we work
like this -- church, private business, government -- to accomplish something."
The article also makes plain that Huntsman, at least, prefers to work on
this kind of problem from behind the scenes. Regarding the crime problem,
Huntsman says, "I spent two years meeting with community leaders and
activists, with Sen. Hatch, the governor and various church leaders to do
all in my power to lower the crime rate. It was a high priority for me, and
quietly, behind the scenes, I spent a lot of time and effort in focusing on
crime problems."
But local attorney Pat Shea says that with the increasing diversity in Utah,
putting together this kind of cooperation is increasingly difficult,
"Whether it's the SLOC dispute, the takeover of First Security (Bank), the
Tribune/Deseret News fight, light rail . . . all these divide the
community." But Huntsman is able to bridge many sides, "Very few people --
Huntsman one of them -- could talk to all parts of the community."
Sources:
Who runs Utah?
Deseret News 13May01 T2
By Lucinda Dillon and Bob Bernick Jr.: Deseret News staff writers
Behind-scenes efforts helped cut crime rate
Pres. Hinckley has most clout
Deseret News 13May01 N2
By Lucinda Dillon and Bob Bernick Jr.: Deseret News staff writers
Most powerful? Leavitt tops poll
Deseret News 13May01 T2
By Lucinda Dillon and Bob Bernick Jr.: Deseret News staff writers
Pres. Hinckley is a close second in Utah survey
Finding the top 20
Deseret News 13May01 T2
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