Romney, Mormonism, BYU and the law
Much has been made in Utah and Massachusetts about the Mitt Romney Team possibly violating election laws, not too mention the ethical implications it may have. Because these recent events will no doubt be brought to light again in 2007/2008, let's recap the events and try to make sense of it all: According to the Boston Globe, the Romney Team met with Mormon officials on September 19, 2006 to discuss a national network of Mormons to boost his presidency. One of the Mormon officials is the Mormon Church apostle Jeffrey Holland. Their apparent goal was to tap the alumni network of the BYU Business School for a future presidential run. At these meetings with Holland and other church officials were Romney's son Josh, a Commonwealth PAC consultant Dan Stirling, and Scott Romney. Church officials claim it was a "courtesy call." The Boston Globe thinks differently. They got a hold of emails from Stirling saying that Jeffrey Holland, apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had assumed a leading role in the Pro-Romney effort. Despite the church's strict rules of neutrality in political races, the Boston Globe accused Holland of also informing other high-ranking Mormon officials. The Romney Team reprimanded Stirling for overstepping his boundary, and denounced the importance of the meetings. They downplayed Stirling's role on Team Romney. Romney '08 bloggers argued that Stirling no longer works for the Commonwealth PAC. However, it is their word against the Boston Globe and Salt Lake Tribune.
At this point, you should be awfully suspicious of several things. First, how can a "neutral" non-profit, tax-exempt organization support a candidate or political party? The answer: it can't. And why was Stirling made out to be the scape goat when all records indicate two Romneys were with him? None of us should be naïve enough to think that Mitt knew nothing about this meeting. His brother and son were there! For a candidate that is worried about people perceiving his Mormonism wrong, he sure did not waste any time making headlines. Romney is bringing the issue onto himself and whether he likes it or not this will be the focal point of his election.