And the Matheson brothers won impressive victories among Salt Lake County voters. Scott Matheson Jr., actually beat GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in the county (but Huntsman slammed Matheson in other areas of the state, winning the governor's seat).

And Rep. Jim Matheson, won the county vote in the 2nd Congressional District by 65 percent. (Rep. Matheson also won his House seat again.)

County Republicans have better hopes for 2006.

Democratic District Attorney Dave Yocom has already announced he won't run again. Yocom has been a thorn in the side of county Republicans for years, and they would love to get that seat back.

And Democratic county clerk Sherrie Swensen has had bad press for a year now. Swensen hasn't said if she'll run again, but Republicans will be gunning for her if she does.

While Swensen has, as far as I can tell, run the elections she's in charge of in an efficient and nonpartisan manner, her chief deputy left under a cloud of sexual harassment — a civil suit is now in the courts.

Democrats, however, can afford to give up the district attorney or clerk seats.

Real power in the county — control of the budget and laws — lies in the mayor's office and the County Council.

If Democrats next year can hold on to the council seats they now hold and win one more council seat, they will control the county — hold the mayor's seat and a majority of council seats — for the first time in a decade, back when Randy Horiuchi and Jim Bradley (who are both on the council now) held two of the three old County Commission seats.

Saturday, county Republicans will pick the leaders who will recruit county and legislative candidates for 2006, raise campaign cash and oversee the all-important volunteer, grass-roots efforts to get Republicans elected in the county again.

If they can do that without the internal bloodletting that's become tradition in the Salt Lake County Republican Party, they'll accomplish something other county party leaders have not done for a long, long time.