Utahns gear up for Demo primary

The first real showdown between the two major candidates remaining in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination will take place Tuesday in three states, including Utah.

But neither Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts nor Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is investing a lot in what might as well be "Forgotten Tuesday." That's frustrating Utah Democrats who were hoping that their primary election would have national impact.

"I've got to admit I'm a little discouraged," said Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch, who's the spokesman for the Kerry campaign here. "What I'm hearing in the national press is that Utah, Idaho and Hawaii don't exist."

About one-third of the Utahns surveyed for a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll said they plan to vote in Tuesday's primary. Of those questioned on Feb. 19 by Dan Jones & Associates, 49 percent back Kerry. Only 23 percent said they're likely to vote for Edwards.

Kerry said he's taking Utah's primary election on Tuesday "very seriously" even if he isn't going to make a campaign stop here.

The Massachusetts senator spoke to reporters in Utah by telephone Sunday from Atlanta. Georgia Democrats go to the polls on March 2, the so-called "Super Tuesday."

Kerry announced new support in Utah from Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and four other Democrats who had backed former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who dropped out of the race last week.

Anderson had endorsed Dean earlier this month, along with legislators Scott Daniels and Jackie Biskupski, Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley and party official Nichole Adams. All now back Kerry, along with nearly three dozen other Utah Democratic leaders.

"I have the strongest organization on the ground in Utah," Kerry said in a raspy, tired-sounding voice. "I've been running a national campaign. I'm doing the best I can to get to as many places as I can. There are other states I'm also not going to be able to get to."

The candidate said he's offering "a plain, common-sense, mainstream American values approach to the choices we have in this country" and that there "there is nothing conservative or mainstream Republican" about the Bush administration fiscal policies.

"I don't think there are many people in Utah who wouldn't exchange today's economy for the economy we had during those eight years we had under Bill Clinton," Kerry said. "That's exactly what I'm going back to."

While Utah Democrats are holding a statewide election Tuesday, party members in Idaho and Hawaii will caucus that day to choose delegates to the national convention this summer. Altogether, though, the three states have only 61 delegates, including Utah's 29.