Happenstance more than anything made Utah a participant in the closest thing to a national primary election that the United States has ever held.

The Beehive State is among two dozen states that will hold primaries or caucuses Tuesday, the outcomes of which will go a long way toward determining the respective parties' nominations for president.

"We just got lucky that we're on Super Tuesday," said Michael Cragun, deputy chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, whose office oversees elections.

But as in times past, with hundreds of delegates up for grabs in larger states like California, New York and Illinois, Utah's impact will again be diluted. Utah has 35 Republican and 29 Democratic delegates at stake.

But that hasn't discouraged the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton camps from targeting the state as winnable. Obama has already visited Utah in person. A scheduled second visit was subsequently canceled because of the death of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. Instead, Obama's wife, Michelle, is planning a Utah campaign stop on Monday.

And while Clinton hasn't made it to Utah, she did send daughter Chelsea to represent her in multiple appearances last week. Democratic candidates New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, both who have since withdrawn, paid brief visits to Utah for fundraisers, as have former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current GOP front-runner John McCain.

And, of course, there's Utah favorite son Republican Mitt Romney, who has been treating the state like a personal piggy bank.

In 2006, the Utah Legislature voted to switch Utah's presidential primary from March to the first Tuesday in February. States around the country moved to the same date because the national Democratic and Republican parties set rules penalizing states for holding primaries before Feb. 5.

Attempts to give the state and the Mountain West more clout in choosing presidential candidates have repeatedly fallen by the wayside. Former Gov. Mike Leavitt tried to organize a Western states primary, but the idea stalled when his counterparts couldn't agree on when and how to hold the election.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has made similar forays to no avail. Several neighboring states rejected the idea because of the cost.

Utah lawmakers set aside $3.35 million for Tuesday's presidential primary. The amount is based on what it costs to put on the June 2006 statewide primary election, Cragun said. Last fall's special election cost about the same.