Romney backer says he's at fault for uproar

One of Governor Mitt Romney's biggest supporters in Utah, developer Kem Gardner, is taking responsibility for the political fallout from the Globe's disclosures of discussions among Romney aides and Mormon Church leaders about an effort to build Mormon support for the governor's probable presidential bid.

"I'm to blame for this whole mess," Gardner, a close friend of Romney's, was quoted as saying in yesterday's edition of The Salt Lake Tribune. But Gardner also termed the discussion between the two camps innocent and said a Romney political consultant had overstated its significance, the paper reported.

Last week, the Globe reported that members of Romney's political team and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had consulted on building a nationwide network of Mormon supporters. The Globe report was based in part on confidential e-mails from Don Stirling, a Romney consultant, stating that Gardner and church leaders were instrumental in the talks.

But Gardner, in the interview with the Tribune, said Stirling's descriptions were overblown. "We know Mitt can't use the church," he was quoted as saying. "Nobody wants a Mormon presidential campaign. It would kill us with the evangelical groups."

Gardner, who has known Romney since both lived in Belmont in the 1980s, has not returned repeated calls from the Globe seeking his comment.

Gardner's comments to the Tribune were the latest attempt by representatives of Romney, the church, and church-run Brigham Young University to contain the fallout from Globe stories over the past week. The stories detailed discussions among the governor's supporters and church leaders about Romney's probable presidential run, discussions that some tax specialists said could violate federal rules prohibiting churches and other tax-exempt groups from supporting political candidates.

On Saturday, Romney's political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC, sought to lay the blame on Stirling, a consultant to the PAC, by saying he "got over-enthusiastic and overstepped his bounds." In a statement, The PAC said it had taken "appropriate action to make sure it doesn't happen again." PAC spokesman Jared Young declined to elaborate on the statement yesterday.

And two deans of the university's business school have been told by the university that they were wrong to send an Oct. 9 e-mail on behalf of the school to 150 people asking for help in propelling Romney's potential 2008 effort.

Meanwhile, the Globe report continued to elicit a strong reaction among Latter-day Saints yesterday, with a leading Mormon politician, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, charging in an interview with Salt Lake City NBC affiliate KSL-TV that the story was "pure bunk" conceived to hurt Romney politically, according to a transcript on the station's website.

On Sunday, local church leaders around the country read a statement to congregations reaffirming the Mormons' commitment to neutrality when it comes to political candidates and parties.

The statement says in part: "While affirming its constitutional right of expression on political and social issues, the Church reaffirms its long-standing policy of neutrality and does not endorse candidates for political office. Church facilities and membership data are not to be used for political purposes. Members who hold public office should not imply or give the impression they represent the Church as they work for solutions to social problems."

The church's director of media relations, Michael R. Otterson, said in an e-mail that the statement had been distributed before last week's Globe report and was very similar to what has been read prior to many elections in the past.

In a Sept. 8 e-mail sent to Sheri L. Dew, chief executive officer of church-owned Deseret Book Co., Stirling said Gardner had met with Jeffrey R. Holland, one of 12 apostles who help lead the Mormon Church, to discuss the effort to help Romney, and that Gardner then set up a Sept. 19 meeting in Holland's office to discuss the plans further. Stirling, Gardner, and Romney's son Josh attended that meeting, which Romney advisers and church representatives have downplayed as an informal get-together meant to remind all parties about the church's strict rules against political involvement.

In the same e-mail, Stirling said Holland was coordinating the plan for the church, that Holland raised the idea of using an alumni group as a networking tool, and that Holland had consulted the president and prophet of the worldwide church, Gordon B. Hinckley, and another top leader on the initiative.

Gardner told the Tribune that he had not conveyed to Stirling that Holland was assigned by the church to oversee the plan to help Romney, which the governor's advisers called Mutual Values and Priorities. "This is so far beyond what actually happened that Elder Holland didn't know what hit him; I'm terribly embarrassed by it," Gardner said.

Gardner also asserted in the Tribune that the e-mail from dean Ned Hill and associate dean Steve Albrecht was not part of the Mutual Values and Priorities effort. Last week, Stirling said in an interview with the Globe that the e-mail was an extension of the MVP program.

"This is the last thing Mitt would want," Gardner was quoted as saying. "He was mortified to learn of the e-mails sent out from the school of management. But there's not much more to it."

Like the church, Brigham Young University is prohibited by law from working on behalf of any political candidate. Albrecht told the Globe last week that sending the e-mail was "bad judgment."

According to the university, the school's lawyers told the deans on Oct. 12 to halt their efforts after a recipient of the e-mail contacted the school.

The recipient was Alan D. Gluth, a lawyer in El Paso who specializes in tax-exempt organizations and is the president of his local chapter of the business school's alumni group, the BYU Management Society. In Gluth's e-mail, obtained by the Globe, he calls himself a "strong supporter" of Romney and the university, but says he was troubled by the e-mail from Hill and Albrecht.

"The e-mail below concerns me because it appears to violate the political activity rules under [federal law] and its underlying regulations," Gluth wrote. "I'm sure that the e-mail was sent innocently, but I felt that it would be appropriate for me to bring it to your attention. I would hate for some political action group to obtain the e-mail and throw this matter into a public forum, which, in turn, could cast the University in a bad light in certain political circles."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.

ROMNEYKem Gardner has known Romney since the 1980s.