When Colorado voters head to the polls next year, they might have the chance to elect a Mormon for president. With his strong fundraising totals and steady rise in the polls, Mitt Romney has a good shot at winning the Republican nomination. But some in the media have already decided that Romney either could not, or should not, be president because of his faith.

The New York Times ran an especially egregious column by Newsweek editor Kenneth Woodward in April. In his thorough lambasting of Mormonism, Woodward noted that "Among the reasons Americans distrust the Mormon church is Mormon clannishness," and that, "to many Americans, Mormonism is a church with the soul of a corporation." Such talk about Jews would have been justifiably dismissed as tasteless anti-Semitism.

Last October, the Boston Globe published what was supposed to be an exposé of Romney's attempt to build a "nationwide network of Mormon supporters to help \[him\] capture the presidency." Mormon leadership patently denied the claim that the church was in any way helping the Romney campaign, and the story fizzled.

It is easy to see such stories as attempts at cooking up fears of a Mormon conspiracy to take over American politics. If a significant portion of the electorate is already hesitant about voting for a Mormon for president, as polls indicate, the media might be solidifying such reticence with an obsessive focus on Romney's faith.

But there are also signs that voters are willing to put aside theological differences to vote for the most qualified candidate with the boldest ideas. As the conservative talk radio host and author Hugh Hewitt notes, "Everywhere Romney goes," Hewitt told me, "he leaves an enormous impression. He impresses voters across the board - whether Mormon or not."

Romney has risen in the polls in direct proportion to the time spent with voters. The more people hear and see from him, the more they like him. This includes evangelicals, who are expected to be Romney's biggest hurdle because of their reservations about Mormonism. As Hewitt, who wrote a book about Romney and his faith, puts it, "Mormons share the same traditional values as evangelicals," and this will ultimately matter most to people of faith.

Before Romney's July visit to Colorado Springs, home to evangelical heavyweights like Focus on the Family and Young Life, his campaign launched a TV ad that proposed tighter restrictions on youth access to pornography and indecency in the media. Campaign spots like this resonate deeply with evangelicals and traditional Catholics.

In light of his visit, The Denver Post ran a feature piece about Romney that would have been a tremendous opportunity to familiarize the public with the GOP's top fundraiser and his thoughts on key issues. The article was a whopping three pages entirely devoted to the Mormon faith. Romney does, in fact, have an ambitious political agenda, but you wouldn't know it from the article.

It may very well be that the peculiar focus on Romney's faith is a way to cover for the paucity of seriousness on the Democratic side. If the Democrats' latest debate was any indication, soothing the anti-war left will be of far greater concern than national security or pro-market solutions to health care and Social Security. And it is on exactly these issues that Mitt Romney is so compelling.

Romney's platform seems well-suited for Colorado, where there are more Republican voters than Democrats. Romney's focus on "a strong military, a strong economy, and strong families" sounds a lot like what state Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams sees as the winning message in Colorado. He doubts Romney's Mormonism will be much of an issue, either: "Colorado voters care about national security, low taxes, and private property. Coloradans will judge Governor Romney on the issues," not his religion.

There's a sense that, especially in Colorado, a Mormon presidential candidate and a moody conservative base will pave the way for a Democratic landslide.

"I sure hope the Democrats think that," notes the wry, optimistic Wadhams. He sees such Democratic over-confidence leaving the door open for a serious, likeable GOP candidate to win the White House and bring election-night smiles to Republican faces in Colorado.

If Colorado's winning candidate is the person who best articulates a broad, national message centered on winning the war on terror, reducing taxes, and fighting the trend of crumbling families, Mitt Romney may indeed be well-situated to become president. But it will neither be in spite of, nor because of, his Mormon faith.

Chris Rawlings (christopher.rawlings@colorado.edu) graduated earlier this year from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in political science.