This was to be the year of religion as a controversial issue in the 2012 campaign.
First, of the original crowd, two were Mormons. Several were Catholic, including Santorum and Gingrich in the Final Four.
There is no doubt a big evangelical base, at least in the Republican primary. But they don't seem to care so much about what denomination their candidate is as the fact that he spouts out loud and clear about "values" that they hold dear (like anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-big-government, and anti-government-control -- except when it's to enforce those values).
So here we have Romney, who doesn't seem to be hurt by his Mormonism.
Santorum, the "more-Catholic-than-the-pope guy," who seems to have caught fire with the evangelicals but is losing the Catholic vote -- to Romney, the Mormon.
Gingrich, whose infidelities seem to have been forgiven by those "family values" folks, and he gets a lot of attention from the far right evangelicals, but is losing them to Santorum.
So -- is there any role that religion is playing here? It's kind of hard to show that is.
Ralph
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Exit polls show that evangelicals are turning out to vote in record numbers: 50.53% of the voters in 16 Republican primaries and caucuses.
ReplyDeleteOf those Santorum has gotten 33%, with Romney and Gingrich getting 29% each.
But here's the surprising finding: only 42% of the Catholic voters know that Santorum is Catholic. There's no way you could be paying attention to the race and not know that.
It helps explain why he is losing the Catholic vote Romney. Catholics (despite the Vatican's positions on abortion, gay marriage, etc.) tend to be less conservative than evangelicals.