Faith no entree to high office

Religious faith is not an automatic entree to elective office, according to a new Pew survey on belief and the 2008 election.

Although most Americans say it’s important that their president profess strong religious beliefs, front-runners Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Republican former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are perceived as the least religious among the contenders, according to a phone survey of 3,002 adults conducted Aug. 1 to 8.

And the most religious candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is handicapped by his Mormon beliefs. The survey found that 25 of those polled had reservations about voting for a Mormon.

Despite the findings, religion is a bar all candidates must pass, said Pew Forum research fellow Gregory Smith.

“For candidates to win an election, it’s not necessary to be seen as the most religious,” he said. “But they need to be seen as somewhat religious. Overall, religion is viewed in a positive light in American politics. There is a strong link as viewing candidates as religious and viewing them in a positive light.”

Sixty-one percent of those polled said they would not vote for an atheist, 45 percent would not vote for a Muslim, 16 percent would not vote for an evangelical Christian, 11 percent would not vote for a Jew, and 7 percent would not vote for a Catholic.

Among leading Democrats, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina ranked the highest in terms of being “very” religious (28 percent) compared with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois (24 percent) and Mrs. Clinton (16 percent).

Mrs. Clinton beat out candidates in both parties in being rated as not religious by 31 percent of the respondents. Fifty-five percent of the Republicans rated her as not very religious, but her own party saw her quite differently: 87 percent of the Democratic respondents rated her as somewhat or very religious.

Among leading Republicans, Mr. Romney was rated as “very” religious by 46 percent of the respondents, beating out even President Bush, of whom 43 percent said was “very religious.” It was a steep drop to the next most religiously perceived candidate: Sen. John McCain of Arizona at 18 percent, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee at 16 percent and Mr. Giuliani at 14 percent.

The survey was a joint effort of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. It has an error sampling of two percentage points.

Moreover, the survey showed that Mr. Giuliani’s liberal stance on abortion is not costing him potential votes. Just 22 percent of the public, 18 percent of the Democrats and 31 percent of the Republicans are aware that he is pro-choice.

Of those Republicans who said social issues matter to them, 35 percent said Mr. Giuliani’s abortion stance was not important.

Two of the campaign’s most outwardly religious Republican participants, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, were not included in the poll because of time and space limitations, Mr. Smith said.