WASHINGTON -- After The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urged more political participation by members this year, it happened to set a record for LDS members in Congress.
It will now have 17, two more than the previous record of 15 set last year. In the Nov. 3 elections, it added one Republican (Rep.-elect Mike Simpson, R-Idaho) and one Democrat (Rep.-elect Tom Udall, D-N.M.). All LDS incumbents also won again.Republicans still vastly outnumber Democrats in the LDS delegation, 14-3. (But take heart, Democrats. Democratic LDS members there outnumbered LDS Republicans as recently as 1991, when they held a 7-6 edge. The pendulum may swing again.).
A blow for Democrats who are active Mormons is that Udall -- who has been serving as New Mexico's state attorney general -- considers himself "a non-practicing Mormon" but a Mormon nonetheless, according to his press secretary.
Not so with his cousin who was also just elected to Congress, Rep.-elect Mark Udall, D-Colo. His press secretary said he "is no longer a practicing Mormon" and considers himself as "unaffiliated" with any church. So he is not included in the count of LDS members of Congress.
The Udalls are descendants of prominent Mormon pioneers in Arizona. Also, Tom's father is Stewart Udall, who was U.S. Interior secretary under presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was a four-term House member. Mark's father is longtime former House member Morris Udall, who ran for president in 1976.
The only Democrats in Congress who are active Mormons are Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. (who barely won re-election by a margin of 401 votes), and nonvoting Delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, D-American Samoa.
They add some color and diversity to the LDS members. For example, Reid is one of the most liberal members of Congress. That is not what Utahns may expect since all their current LDS members of Congress are conservative or ultraconservative.
And Faleomavaega could be called the amazing tattooed congressman -- unlike other LDS missionary-look-alikes in Congress. He has a tattoo from his neck to his knees made during a three-day ritual designed to simulate the pain of childbirth. Anyone with political aspirations in Samoa is said to need one.
Faleomavaega also was a Polynesian dancer in some Elvis Presley movies and at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. He is known to take off his shoes in his office and strum his ukelele.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., might also be considered an honorary LDS Democrat. He is Jewish and survived the Nazi holocaust in his native Hungary. So did his wife, Annette, who is his unpaid top aide. But she joined the LDS Church in America -- and Tom is friendly enough toward it that he sometimes helps host LDS diplomatic events in Washington.
The LDS Republicans in Congress are more bland -- but have some interesting characters, too. They include Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., who was a lead GOP rebel against House Speaker Newt Gingrich long before such things became in vogue this month.
Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., was briefly considered this month by some to be among top candidates to replace Gingrich. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., annually pushes a constitutional amendment to allow school prayer that evangelicals praise.
Other LDS members include: Sen.-elect Mike Crapo, R-Idaho (who had been a House member); Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.; and Reps. John Doolittle, Wally Herger and Ron Packard, all R-Calif.
Also included, of course, is Utah's all-Republican and all-LDS delegation of Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, and Reps. Jim Hansen, Merrill Cook and Chris Cannon.
Mormons now have 3.1 percent of the seats in Congress. That's about twice as much as one might expect -- since LDS Church members comprise only about 1.8 percent of the U.S. population.
That suggests that some LDS members must be listening to the advice of their leaders to be more active in politics. But given current margins, Democrats must surely hope that more LDS Democrats exist out there somewhere -- or could be converted.
Deseret News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson can be reached by e-mail at leed@dgs.dgsys.com