so says Harry Reid:

“My faith and political beliefs are deeply intertwined. I am a Democrat because I am a Mormon, not in spite of it,” he told a gathering of more than 4,000 at the Marriott Center.

But Nevada’s senior senator says he also hopes votes for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are “determined by his political stands, and not his religion.”

Reid said people often question how he can be a Democrat and a Mormon, but called the social responsibility Democrats espouse a good fit with the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.