Influence of the LDS Church on Utah's GOP

Utah Policy had Dan Jones ran a survey about LDS Church influence in Utah politics.

Predictably, Mormons tended to approve of the influence their church had on state politics. Non-Mormons disapproved.

The telling information in this survey is that the responses from people who identified themselves as GOP were in line with the Mormon response. Here are two of the results:

"Among Republican Utahns: 15 percent said too much; 67 said about the right amount of influence in the Legislature; 13 percent said too little; 6 percent didn’t know."

67% + 13% = 80% in favor.

"Among Protestants: 84 percent said too much influence; 16 percent said about right; 0 percent said too little influence, and 0 percent didn’t know ... Among Catholics: 79 percent said too much influence; 18 percent said about right; 0 percent said too little influence; 3 percent didn’t know."

80% of Republicans favor the strong influence the LDS Church has on Utah politics while 84% of Protestants and 79% of Catholics disprove of this strong influence.

This survey shows a huge gap between the views of Protestants and Catholics and the Republican Party.

Living in Utah these last several decades, I've come to see the Utah GOP as simply a political arm of the LDS Church. Non-Mormons are basically locked out of the Utah Republican Party.

Now, I need to state openly and clearly that, like most Americans, I am not a member of the Republican Party.

But, I would like to challenge members of the GOP to question if this domination of the Utah GOP by the LDS Church is healthy for their party?

Is this what you want: A party that is dominated by a single political hierarchy with everyone else (Catholics, Protestants, etc.) simply locked out?