The Mormons were concerned about being seen as a one-party church, tied too closely with Republicans, said Todd Taylor, a Democratic Party executive who was there.
"They wanted to find better ways to get more Mormons involved in the Democratic Party."
Laudable on paper. The idea is that the Democratic Party would be influenced closer to LDS values. This has failed and I predict will continue to fail from now on. The way to determine this is to compare the parties with LDS doctrine. Democrats fail this test on all fronts. Republican and other conservative parties tend to be neutral at worst.
He was a Democratic state legislator from 1949 to 1951, while he was an LDS bishop. In the mid-1950s he chaired the party in Utah and helped manage a campaign of Sen Frank Moss, D-Utah. He looked to two other prominent Latter-day Saint Democrats - N. Eldon Tanner and Hugh B. Brown - as mentors.
That was back when it was still possible for Democratic modus operandii to not conflict (much) with LDS doctrine.
"I am a conservative on fiscal and property matters, and I am liberal in terms of human values and human rights," Faust told his biographer, James P. Bell. "I believe what it says in the Book of Mormon, that the Lord values all of his children equally - black and white, bond and free, male and female, Jew and gentile - and that the Lord likewise has compassion for the heathen."
Those are conservative values. On paper, they are Liberal values too, but their execution (Socialism and the welfare state, gay marriage, abortion, Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/Rev Wright etc.) are contrary to LDS doctrine.
He went on to say that the LDS Church would prefer to have members in both parties.
The division has already occurred. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Divider (Matthew 10). The Democratic Party is no longer a haven for Christians.
"Both locally and nationally, the interests of the church and its members are best served when we have two good men or women running on each ticket, and then no matter who is elected, we win," Faust told Bell, as reported in the 1999 volume, In the Strength of the Lord: The Life and Teachings of James E. Faust.
There hasn't been an LDS Democrat whose election victory would or did result in an LDS win for many decades now.
Faust, who died early Friday morning at 87, was "a compassionate, virtuous man and a beloved teacher," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "I will always remember his concern for the less-fortunate and what a strong advocate he was for public service. He made the world a better place."
That torch was passed to conservatives decades ago. Liberalism today is a false compassion that enslaves and is in every way in opposition to Christ.