From Deseret News archives:
No sure bets at Utah's conventions
The 2,500 Democratic state convention delegates may get outside by midafternoon.
The 3,500 GOP state delegates will be lucky to make an early dinner.
How important are the 2004 state conventions?
Well, a few political careers will end Saturday.
And a few will begin in earnest.
The big race, of course, is among the eight Republicans who want to be governor.
Those include Gov. Olene Walker, who stepped up from lieutenant governor to the top post last November; Jon Huntsman Jr., seeking to make his own name in politics; Merit Medical boss Fred Lampropoulos, who has joked about his last name for a year; state House speaker Marty Stephens, who hopes Saturday won't be the last time his name is on a ballot; Board of Regents chairman Nolan Karras, who finally decided to jump into a big race after years of being told he should be governor; former U.S. House veteran Jim Hansen, who may be wondering why he decided to get in this mess in the first place; state Sen. Parley Hellewell, R-Orem, who will have some mementos of this campaign to show his grandchildren; and an unknown, former college professor Gary Benson, who admits he has no chance of winning the nomination.
Who knows if Democrat Scott Matheson Jr., who will officially become the Democratic gubernatorial candidate Saturday, has a real chance to win his late father's old seat. But Utah hasn't elected a Democrat governor since Scott M. Matheson won a second term in 1980.
So odds are, GOP delegates Saturday will be winnowing down to two the people who will sit in the governor's office next January.
That's pretty important stuff.
But there are two other big races in the Republican convention.
John Swallow and Tim Bridgewater will go at it again in the 2nd Congressional District. They are joined by Salt Lake County Councilman David Wilde, who hopes delegates are tired of Swallow and Bridgewater's U.S. House fights and will pick someone new.
And in the 3rd Congressional District, Rep. Chris Cannon hopes delegates will, again, relieve him of pesky intra-party challengers and give him a clear shot at re-election.
But local attorney Greg Hawkins believes he has a chance of knocking Cannon right out of office. That's a big job — getting 60 percent of the delegate vote to unseat an entrenched, rich incumbent.
Former state Rep. Matt Throckmorton is also in the 3rd District race. In the 2002 convention, Cannon beat Throckmorton and another challenger to win the nomination outright, avoiding a primary.
