Brownback apologizes to Romney

By Charlotte Eby | Monday, June 18, 2007

TODAY: (Updated 4:32 p.m.) INDIANOLA — GOP presidential hopeful Sam Brownback called rival Mitt Romney to apologize today after one of Brownback’s Iowa campaign staffers was reprimanded for sending an e-mail to Iowa activists questioning Mormonism.

Brownback, a Catholic, insisted Monday that Romney’s Mormon faith shouldn’t matter.

“There’s no religious test to be president; there shouldn’t be one,” Brownback told reporters during a noon-hour campaign stop in Indianola. “And so these are things that if they get involved in campaigns, they’re wrong. We tell our campaign not to have this discussion.”

Brownback said the campaign is about policy issues, not theological questions or religious beliefs.

Brownback said he had not read the e-mail. It was sent by one of the campaign’s Iowa field directors, Emma Nemecek, but Brownback said it had not been sent on campaign communications devices.

The U.S. senator from Kansas is in Iowa for a four-day, 27-city bus tour across the state.

Charlotte Eby can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.