Romney appeal for Mormon Church help raises tax questions.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is laying the groundwork for a run at the White House in 2008, and already one aspect of his campaign has sparked controversy: his aggressive outreach to officials with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).

The Boston Globe reported in October that Romney, a Mormon, has implemented a fund-raising initiative that his advisers call "Mutual Values and Priorities."

The plan hinges on building a base of support through alumni chapters of Brigham Young University's business school, called the Marriott School of Management, as well as among top church leadership. It is overseen by a staffer with Romney's political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC.

Critics say the plan is flawed because it relies on the active participation of officials at the church and at BYU, both tax-exempt entities.

As the Globe reported, "The president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, has been informed of the effort and expressed no opposition.... Jeffrey R. Holland, one of 12 apostles who help lead the church worldwide, has handled the initiative for the church and hosted a Sept. 19 meeting in his office in church headquarters with one of Romney's sons, a paid political consultant for the PAC, and one of the governor's major donors. On Oct. 9, two deans of the Marriott School sent an e-mail from a BYU e-mail address asking 150 people to join them in supporting Romney's potential candidacy."

Continued the Globe, "Asked if he thought the use of church and university resources for political purposes posed a potential conflict with federal law on tax-exempt institutions, Romney said: 'That's for them to describe. I don't have anything to add from what they have already said on that.'"

Experts on federal tax law expressed concern about the overture.

Donald C. Alexander, who headed the IRS in the mid-1970s, told the newspaper, "The massive effort described in your article is, if not over the line, I think much too close to the line. I think individual Mormons can and probably will support the governor, but they should support the governor as individuals, not in their capacities as having responsibilities for a church or for a university.... This could create a real problem for some fine institutions."

Thomas A. Troyer, a specialist in tax-exempt organizations consulted by the Globe, added, "There's certainly some smoke there, more than smoke, and it deserves further scrutiny, further investigation."

Although Romney is not yet an announced candidate, the early rumblings could indicate that he intends to build a church-based machine in his effort to capture the nation's highest office.

That outreach is not likely to be limited to Mormon churches. Romney is also aggressively courting the Religious Right, a movement that consists mostly of fundamentalist Protestants.

Romney is popular among some Religious Right activists because he is a social-issues conservative who was twice elected governor of a liberal state, and he has opposed a ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that led to the legalization of same-sex marriages.

Romney spoke at the "Values Voter Summit" sponsored by Family Research Council Action and other Religious Right groups last September in Washington. He focused almost exclusively on the same-sex marriage issue and was well received.

Last month, the Globe reported that Romney has been meeting regularly with groups of influential conservative evangelicals, seeking their input as he prepares to run. In late October, Romney conferred with a dozen evangelical leaders at his home. Among them were Gary Bauer, former president of the Family Research Council, and Richard Land, a top official in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Two weeks before that meeting, Romney huddled with "about a dozen Baptist pastors at a private club in Columbia, S.C.," the Globe reported.