The LDS Church has invited Idaho gubernatorial candidate Phil Batt to its 164th Semiannual General Conference this weekend in an attempt to reassert its neutrality in political races.
Church officials sent the non-Mormon Batt an invitation to the Saturday-Sunday conference on Temple Square after reports that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Larry EchoHawk, a Mormon, was to be featured at a fund-raising breakfast Saturday morning in the church-owned Joseph Smith Memorial Building.EchoHawk will attend the conference after the fund-raising event.
Batt's campaign office said the invitation was faxed to his Wilder office Thursday afternoon.
It came after disclosures Wednesday that the EchoHawk fund-raiser may be an unprecedented political use of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, formerly the Hotel Utah.
While some of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building is dedicated to purely religious purposes, much of the space is set aside for public and commercial use. The building has two restaurants, as well as facilities for meetings, wedding receptions and other events.
Church spokesman Don Le-Fevre said a lot of public officials are invited to attend conference, but it's unusual for a political candidate to be invited.
"I think they felt that since one (EchoHawk) is going to the conference, the other (Batt) should be invited. It is an effort to emphasize our political neutrality policy," he said.
"Obviously, there must be some out there that think having the EchoHawk reception here was at least a pseudo endorsement of some kind. That is not true," Le-Fevre said.
Batt, a Baptist, won't be able to come.
"We appreciate the invitation, but we only received it yesterday and Phil is scheduled to start his bus tour on Saturday," said campaign press secretary Amy Kleiner. "The bus tour has been on our schedule since August."
Batt launches an eight-day tour of Idaho's 1st Congressional District at Caldwell Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Mormon chairman of the Bonneville County Republican Committee said EchoHawk has embarrassed his fellow church members by holding the fund-raiser in a church-owned facility.
Jeff Schrade of Idaho Falls said in a statement that many church members "are just shocked - mortified" over the event.
The EchoHawk fund-raiser, scheduled so that participants will have time to attend the church's conference as well, was set up by conservative Republican Wendell Ashton, former publisher of the church-owned Deseret News.
A second fund-raiser was scheduled for Saturday night, hosted by the woman who is the co-chairman of the Utah pro-choice organization. EchoHawk has a strong record against abortion.
"There are hundreds of places in Salt Lake to hold a meeting," Schrade said. "It should never have been scheduled at a church-owned building."
"If anyone is responsible for dragging religion into this, it's the Republicans," EchoHawk said. "I make every attempt to avoid mixing politics and religion."
"If the organizers of these events had realized how the Republicans would treat them, I'm sure they would have changed the location and dates," EchoHawk said. "But I can, in good conscience, say that I have not mixed politics with religion."