Mormon Base a Mixed Blessing for Romney

"We are happy of and proud of all the support we have received from members of the LDS. A lot of these supporters are interested in helping the governor because they think he would make a great president," Madden said. But, he added, "if we're going to win, it's going to require a broad spectrum of the American people."

A breakdown of the donors who gave the $21 million -- $6 million more than former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, his nearest competitor -- will not be available for another 10 days. And Romney's political action committees, which have accumulated $8 million since 2004, have received substantial amounts from non-Mormons such as former colleagues in Boston finance circles, friends and associates in Michigan, where he grew up, and from business executives such as eBay chief executive Meg Whitman and Compuware founder Peter Karmanos.

But based on the fundraising he conducted before this year, Romney's other sectors of support are likely to be dwarfed by the backing he is receiving from LDS members. Wealthy Mormons giving to Romney's PACs include the Marriotts, the Bethesda-based hotel family, who have given more than $390,000; the family of Jon Huntsman Sr., the owner of a major Utah chemical company, which has given more than $170,000; and the family of Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, which has given $100,000.

Also giving heavily have been thousands of rank-and-file church members. After Romney last fall sent direct-mail solicitations to Republicans nationwide, his two biggest state-level PACs received 319 checks from Utah, which is about two-thirds Mormon -- a third of the total number of checks he received in the year's final quarter. In the same period, he received seven checks from Massachusetts, where he has lived more than 30 years.

Of course, not all Mormons are supporting Romney, and those who are stress that they like him not only because of his religion. They point to his experience as a consulting and venture-capital executive and as governor, and most of all, his success running the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. They say the socially conservative platform he is running on puts him in line with Mormon voters, 85 percent of whom supported George W. Bush in 2004, according to exit polls.

Yet church members are also open about the pride they take in seeing a Mormon with a credible presidential bid, a feeling stronger than what they felt for the short-lived candidacy of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) in 2000. Romney has deep roots in Utah (his great-grandfather designed the tabernacle in St. George), and older Mormons remember Romney's father, George, an auto executive and Michigan governor who made a brief run for president in 1968.

"He comes from the same background as his dad," said Jewell Bartholomew, a retired nurse in Orem, Utah. Referring to her $100 donation last fall to Romney's Michigan PAC, she said, "I would be lying if I said his LDS background did not have something to do with it."

A Stronghold in the West

After Utah, which holds a quarter of the church's 5.7 million U.S. members, the highest concentrations of Mormons are in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Arizona, in that order. California, by virtue of its size, has the second-largest Mormon population in absolute terms -- about 750,000.

While the church is strongest in the West, it is represented in almost every corner of the country, in congregations organized into "stakes," "wards" and "branches." Its hierarchy is headed by a president and two counselors and a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, while congregations are led by laymen, a role Romney served.

Church leaders encourage members to vote and be involved in politics, and they occasionally weigh in on "moral" issues such as ballot initiatives on same-sex marriage or gambling. But to preserve the church's tax exemption, its leaders warn against making endorsements inside churches or using membership lists or the church's Web site for partisan purposes.

Romney's campaign edged against these boundaries last fall when Kem Gardner, a Utah developer whose family has given $140,000 to Romney's PACs, set up a meeting in Salt Lake City with a church apostle, a Romney consultant and one of Romney's sons. Documents obtained by the Boston Globe showed that the apostle, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, suggested promoting Romney via the alumni association of the business school at church-owned Brigham Young University, a group with 5,500 members in 40 chapters.

Days later, two deans from the business school sent an e-mail rallying support for Romney to 150 members of the school's advisory council and 50 chapter leaders of the alumni association, the Management Society. Because it is legally part of church-owned BYU, the society is also prohibited from backing candidates. After the Globe reported on the efforts in October, church leaders disavowed any campaign on Romney's behalf.