Can 'Mormon Card' Grab the Jackpot?
Salt Lake Tribune 17Oct99 D2
By Rebecca Walsh: Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- In the upcoming mayoral elections, the voters will have to decide between two men who call each other 'cuz,' as they are descendants of one of the five wives of William Hyde, an early Mormon bishop for whom the Cache County hamlet of Hyde Park is named. Running is the Democratic and very liberal Rocky Anderson, who is only a Mormon by birth, and the Republican Conservative Stuart Reid who is making his active involvement in the Church a campaign issue, including his years as an police chaplain and public affairs official for the Church.

Of the cities and towns in Utah, Salt Lake City is the one that has the highest percentage of non-Mormon residents, with some saying that it now has more non-Mormons than Mormons. Church members in Utah tend to be mostly conservative Republican, while the non-Mormon population has large Democratic liberal leanings.

Before the days of the railroad, the Salt Lake City mayoral position was almost a church calling, with its first mayor being Jedediah Grant, father of Heber J and counselor to Brigham Young. This started a nearly 40 year long line of Mormon Mayors until 1890, when the city had its first non-Mormon mayor.

Since then and up until now, religion didn't really seem to be much of an issue in city elections with mayors being non-Mormons as often as not. The present mayor, Deedee Corradini, who is Protestant, ran twice against Mormon men and won. Religion was never a part of those campaigns as city issues up until now have generally been about functional infrastructure and never about core moral values.

Never the less, religion is a part of this election as Anderson is pushing a very liberal agenda for the city, including gay rights issues and Reid is countering that by displaying his religion as an asset, hoping that his display of the ìreligion cardî on these moral issues will sway voters. However, some political pundits think that this may actually backfire for Reid because of the high non-Mormon population of the city.