Utah's current primary system isn't perfect

The state conventions for both the Republican and Democratic parties in Utah are Saturday.

I've been attending these events since the early 1980s, watched the close races, the blowouts and the internal political maneuvering.

Utah has an odd political system, part caucus/conventions, part open and closed primary elections.

Most other states don't combine the two processes. They either have a closed convention system whereby delegates pick the party nominees, or they have a general primary where all candidates go on the ballot for citizens to pick from.

Because of the combined systems here, in Utah many candidates move to the left (for Democrats) or to the right (for Republicans) to make it through the convention, then move to the middle to get through the primary and general elections.

Such dancing is not good for either the parties or the candidates.

Republican leaders have for some time complained that Democrats, through some kind of informal consensus-seeking, avoid primaries — which can often be contentious in both parties.

By avoiding a primary, the minority party candidates can save money for the general election and keep bad intra-party feelings to a minimum.

Republicans, on the other hand, have had some classic and bitter primary battles over the years.

When the ultimate GOP nominee loses in the final election, party insiders pound their fists on the table and demand some changes to the primary or convention process to avoid such losses in the future. And then little is done about it.

Maybe the singular example of this came in 1990.

Then-U.S. Rep. Howard Nielson, a Republican and the first person to hold the 3rd District seat, was retiring. The district was so overwhelmingly Republican that it was believed that whoever ended up as the GOP nominee would be a shoo-in. The Democratic candidate was an unknown fellow named Bill Orton, underfunded and considered a sacrificial lamb.

Two Republicans came out of the GOP convention: John Harmer and Karl Snow. Harmer was a noted conservative, a former California lieutenant governor. Snow was a respected, but more moderate, state senator.

The primary race in those days lasted from the May or June convention to September. And all summer long, Harmer and Snow battled each other. The race got crazy. And at one point, both sides ended up with private investigators looking into the other's past and politics.