Mormons volunteer to aid post-earthquake efforts

The February 21 earthquake in Wells, Nevada ranked stronger than 6.1 on the richter scale.  (even people in Salt Lake City felt the vibrations) As residents in that area are cleaning up and restoring structures, Mormon volunteers from throughout the region, including full-time missionaries, are helping the community.  This article from the Deseret News reports.

How the West was won . . .

Mitt Romney's victory in Nevada can be partially attributed to the fact that about 25% of GOP primary voters are LDS. Romney has garnered the largest number of delegates in the primaries thus far, and is seen as the front-runner on the Republican side. Over history, a handful of Mormons have run for the American presidency, including Orrin Hatch (career politician and current Senator from Utah) and Joseph Smith, Jr. (former Church president). Now the prospect of a member of the LDS Church actually capturing the Oval Office is a pleasant shock to most American Mormons. From a persecuted group of religious believers to a mainstream American religion with a serious and viable candidate for the presidency, I guess we've come a long way.
As I've mentioned earlier in the blog, Mormons constitute a major voting bloc in the Western United States, and major presidential candidates are wise to court them and attract Latter-day Saints. Now that Nevada, a Western state, hosts its primary races earlier than most, it is an important electoral battleground, where Mormons play a key role. Nevada's Democratic Senator, Harry Reid, it also U.S. Senate Majority Leader. Many other political and public offices in Nevada are held by Mormons, including the mayor of Henderson, Nevada's third largest city.



Disclaimer: The blog does not endorse any candidate, or political party. The coverage of Mitt Romney reflects the interest of the blog's readers, etc. Thank you.

Barack Obama's Mormon Strategy

Latter-day Saints are a significant constituency in many Western states, like Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, California, Washington, and obviously Utah.  Understanding the importance of this significant group, Barack Obama's campaign has plans to attract Mormons in the general election, that is if Governor Romney does not receive his party's nomination. Please check out this article.  Although the Church does not support any political candidate, including Mitt, a large number of Church members in the West have pledged to support Mr. Romney.  But other Mormons are supporting other candidates in both major parties.  There are, in fact, a number of LDS groups caucusing for Barack Obama around the country.  Examples of such support are groups on Facebook, entitled, "Mormons for Obama", or "White Mormon Men for Obama".

 According to some pundits and political strategists, Mormons in general are less likely to support Huckabee or McCain if Romney loses.  The Obama campaign hopes to capitalize on that.

Among elected officials, one of Obama's earliest supporters was Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a Mormon Democrat and mayor of Honolulu, Obama's city of birth.