Can Utah be won by the Dems with a mormon nominee?

[HAnnA MArin County]

I'm inclined to say NO. Although Salt Lake City/Salt Lake County is expanding and become more latte liberalish, as evidenced by Barack Obama's narrow victory in the county in 2008, the Republicans still have a monopoly on the Mormons due to their hypocritical and pathetic lock on "family values." If you don't believe me, look at the other two counties Obama won: the percentage of Mormons in each county is under 50 percent in both counties. Hmmmm.

The best chance for a Democrat to carry Utah would be Rep. Jim Matheson (D, UT-02) and even then it would be an uphill battle and he'd probably get slaughtered nationwide for running as a conservative Democratic Mormon candidate. I just think Utah is too stubbornly Republican to vote for any Democrat, at least for now and at least until the Mormons stop voting with their Bibles or whatever they call it, it's like running in Nazi Germany out there I'm sure.

I wholeheartedly agree with a previous poster who said that Democrats shouldn't worry about winning Utah, at least not right now. It did amaze me, though, at how wildly the most Republican state in the nation swung so Democratic, which leaves me to believe that over time Democrats may be able to break the Republican stranglehold in Utah but I don't think it will be anytime soon.

One must also look at the other GOP bastion of Idaho, which contains a significant amount of Mormons as well and McCain underperformed George W. Bush here as well; Obama almost held McCain into the upper 50s which is very impressive for a Democrat to do so well in the Gem State.