Not as catchy as the “Jell-O Belt” or as significant as the “Mormon Index” but still interesting. And depressing if you lean Republican.

Obviously, last year was a big year for Democrats but a Gallup survey shows that 35 states leaned Democrat by five points or more and only five states leaned or were solidly Republican. Utah was considered the most solidly Republican with a Democrat-Republican gap of 23%.

The small cluster of holdout states has been dubbed the “Mormon Belt.” Looking to 2012, if Sarah Palin wants to woo her base, maybe she should convert (and Mike Huckabee should at least take the discussions).

There were a lot of reasons that contributed to the last year’s Republican wipe-out. Many of those I think (or is it just hope?) will be more temporary than long-standing. Subsequent run-off elections suggest that the Obamenon may be singular event and not necessarily a party-wide Democratic trend.

Either way, Utah is not (yet) joining Pres. Obama’s “moment” and the GOP have a lot of work to do. But how fair is it to attribute these GOP holdouts due to their Mormon population? I’m not sure.