WASHINGTON - The Republican presidential field has moved into a more aggressive phase just three months before voting begins with a flare-up over religion sparked by a prominent supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Mitt Romney, the leading Republican contender for the right to challenge President Barack Obama, on Saturday denounced "poisonous language" against faiths after the Perry supporter called Romney's Mormon faith a "cult."
Perry steered clear of that simmering issue Saturday and pushed another hot button instead: the federal retirement program Social Security.
Romney, in remarks to the Values Voters Summit -- a gathering of cultural conservatives in Washington -- did not directly confront the words of the Perry supporter. In fact, the former Massachusetts governor was criticizing another speaker at the meeting known for anti-Mormon and anti-Muslim rhetoric, and who followed him on stage.
But amid a Republican field finally settled, his cautionary words served as notice that attacks on faiths should, in his view, be off the table.
Romney appealed to social conservatives to support a presidential candidate who has the best record on the economy.
Next year's election is likely to be dominated by domestic issues, especially the weak U.S. economic recovery from the Great Recession that has left millions of Americans without jobs. And while President Barack Obama may be vulnerable to criticism about the economy, he has considerably more foreign policy experience than Romney and most other Republicans in the 2012 election field.
Until now, Romney's Mormon faith and Perry's evangelical Christianity were secondary to a Republican primary focused on who can best fix the country's economy. Questions about his faith plagued Romney's 2008 presidential run, but he had been able to keep them at bay so far this time.
That changed when a pastor who introduced Perry to cultural conservatives called Mormonism a "cult" and said Romney is "not a Christian," forcing Perry to distance himself and Romney to respond.
And it illustrates that Perry's very public religiosity and long history with evangelical Christian leaders won't remain on the sidelines of the presidential race.
But Perry, campaigning Saturday in Iowa's staunchly conservative northwest, barely touched on religion at all. In stops at Sioux City and Orange City, he never mentioned Mormonism, Romney by name, or even Christianity, for that matter.
Asked by Republican Steven Bernston what books have most influenced him, Perry mentioned only one: the work of conservative economist Friedrich Hayek. Bernston, a corn and beans farmer, later said he was surprised that Perry didn't at least mention the Bible.
"I don't think he's a reader," Bernston said in an interview, noting that Perry used the question to switch to previous statements about his opposition to government efforts to stimulate the economy.
Perry waded back into Social Security, instead, a tricky issue for him after he roundly criticized the popular entitlement in his book and his Republicans rivals piled on against him.
Responding to a question in Sioux City, he said "it makes sense" to increase the eligibility age for benefits and it may be time to reduce those benefits for the wealthy, a process known as means-testing.
In each of four Iowa campaign stops over two days, Perry took questions from voters, and none from reporters. None of the questioners mentioned Mormonism or asked overtly religious questions.
