Boston, USA - Governor Mitt Romney is convening meetings with small groups of evangelical leaders to seek guidance for his possible presidential run, as Romney and Mormon supporters intensify efforts to allay concerns about his faith.
Romney, who is ramping up preparations for a 2008 campaign, huddled privately at his Belmont home last Thursday with about a dozen evangelicals, including conservative activist Gary Bauer, president of the group American Values, and Richard Land, a prominent leader in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Two weeks earlier, Romney met with about a dozen Baptist pastors at a private club in Columbia, S.C. Today, he is set to meet with more Christian leaders at an activist's home in Greenville, S.C.
The meetings have touched on several themes, participants say, but two topics being discussed are Romney's religious beliefs and how he should address his faith as the campaign progresses.
Romney's meetings with evangelicals, which are reminiscent of a similar effort by President Bush before he ran for president in 2000, take place as groups and individuals separate from Romney's political team are trying to improve the public perception of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Polls indicate that the religion is widely misunderstood and viewed skeptically by many in the United States.
A pro-Romney political organization with no connection to his campaign operation has been educating people in South Carolina, a state with a key early presidential primary, about the Mormon faith to break down negative stereotypes. A well-known West Coast radio host has a new book coming out next year about Romney and his religion. And the Mormon Church leadership is reaching out to news organizations to explain Mormon beliefs and practices.
At last week's meeting at Romney's home, Land said, he told the governor that voters want "a commander in chief, not a theologian in chief." Land said he encouraged the governor to do what John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, did in 1960: Give a major speech that confronts head on the lingering prejudices against his religion.
"I told him I thought most Americans believed in fair play, and you have the opportunity to take the poison out of this issue the same way that Senator Kennedy did," said Land, who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the denomination's public policy arm. "I think he needs to address the issue sooner rather than later. I just encouraged him to do it forthrightly and honestly and say, 'Look, this is my faith, and we don't have a religious test for office, and here's how my faith informs my values system.' "
Land, who stressed that he doesn't endorse candidates, described the gathering at Romney's house as informal, "just sort of a get-together and get-acquainted kind of meeting."
Land said that Romney, whom he had never met, was in "listening mode" and heard a range of perspectives on several issues. The group discussed Romney's views on the judiciary, national security, and social issues such as abortion, said Land, who declined to say who else was there.
Jared Young, a spokesman for Romney's political action committee, said the meeting at Romney's home was private, and he declined to say who attended and what was discussed.
"He's been having various meetings with various groups and group leaders," Young said. "He's seeking their input and advice and just sitting down and talking with them."
On Oct. 13, Romney sat down with Baptist pastors at the Palmetto Club in Columbia, S.C., said Joe Mack, public policy director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
"I would probably characterize it as a first meeting, exploratory kind of thing, see where everybody was," Mack said.
Mack said they discussed Romney's religion, but focused on the values he shares with evangelicals.
"Obviously as Baptists, theologically we have some differences, but on social, moral issues . . . it seemed like we had some common ground," Mack said.
Today, 10 to 12 other Baptist pastors are lined up to talk to Romney at the Greenville home of activist Dee Benedict, who has expressed surprise at seeing social conservatives lining up behind Romney.
Meanwhile, a political organization called RunMittRun.org, created by a Mormon filmmaker this year to demystify Romney's religion, has just completed meetings with focus groups in Greenville and Columbia, S.C., to gauge the governor's political viability. The results were sobering: Misunderstanding and suspicion about the religion abound, Mitch Davis, the founder of RunMittRun.org, reported in an Oct. 21 e-mail update to supporters.
"Left unaddressed, the distortions of Mormonism would cause an insurmountable number of voters to vote against Mitt for president in South Carolina," Davis wrote.
But the focus groups also indicated that South Carolinians could be swayed. Fifty percent of the participants said before the focus groups began that they could not vote for a Mormon, but 80 percent of those participants said afterward that they had changed their mind , according to Davis.
RunMittRun.org, which counts about 2,000 supporters, has been bankrolled largely through a $100,000 donation in September from Hubert Humphrey, founder of the World Leadership Group, a Georgia-based company that helps people found their own businesses. But the organization has also collected contributions from many other backers, including Kris Murphy, 44, a stay-at-home father who lives outside Birmingham, Ala.
"I was born and raised in the church and served a mission, and frankly I am sick and tired of the mischaracterization of Mormons not being Christians," Murphy said, citing a belief held by some evangelicals. "Whenever there's an opportunity to talk about what Mormonism is, . . . we are ready and willing and able to talk about it."
"It is unfortunate that religion is a factor," Murphy continued, "but you'd have to be a moron to ignore it."
At the same time, the Mormon Church, through its public affairs staff and an outside public relations firm, Edelman, has been conducting background briefings with news organizations to familiarize them with what the church believes and how it works.
The church's director of media relations, Michael R. Otterson, would not say which organizations church representatives have met with. But the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported last week that the church had approached journalists at that publication, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the Hotline, a political newsletter published by the National Journal.
The church's effort is similar to its campaign before the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics to reach out to hundreds of journalists who descended on the city, to help them understand what the church was, and what its history and beliefs were.
"The church takes every opportunity to help journalists understand its beliefs and practices," Otterson wrote in an e-mail response to questions about the effort.
Otterson said part of the motivation was to reiterate to media organizations the church's commitment to being politically neutral. He said the effort began before stories in the Globe last month detailing discussions among representatives of the Mormon Church and Romney's political team about building a list of Mormon supporters.
In another development, Hugh Hewitt, a popular conservative radio host, plans to add his voice next spring to the debate about Romney's religion and how it will or won't affect his White House chances. Hewitt is finishing a new book, drawn in part from extensive interviews with Romney and his family, called "A Mormon in the White House? Ten Things Every Conservative Should Know About Mitt Romney."
Hewitt, in an interview this week, wouldn't give away the book's conclusions. But he said that he found that Mormonism was "not particularly well understood by many" and that he believes it will pose challenges for Romney.
Hewitt has spoken positively about Romney in the past. But he said that he has no favorite 2008 candidate and that the book is not meant to boost Romney's campaign.
"This is an objective journalistic effort . . . that will speak for itself," said Hewitt, a professor of constitutional law. "It's not a campaign biography, and it's not anti-anybody."
Romney has not officially announced a presidential bid, but his political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC, has been bulking up with key staff, including Sally Bradshaw, one of the top political advisers to Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, and Barbara Comstock, a onetime strategist for the Republican National Committee.
The PAC has also been signing up well-known political consulting firms around the country, including the Sterling Corp. in Michigan and the Phillips Group in West Virginia.