Utah's delegates still committed to vote for Romney

Expect all of Utah's 36 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis to still vote for Mitt Romney, even though he suspended his campaign on Thursday.

"Our (Utah) rules are very clear. Whoever wins the most votes (in the Utah primary) gets those delegates on the first ballot," said Utah Republican Party Chairman Stan Lockhart.

"All of our delegates belong to Mitt Romney until he releases them," Lockhart said. By merely suspending his campaign instead of withdrawing, Romney has not yet released those delegates or any others he has won nationally.

Meanwhile, the status of other Romney delegates nationally was not settled. Each state party sets its own rules about pledged delegates, and in some cases delegates are not bound until local conventions later in the year, according to documents published by the Republican National Committee.

Utah has just 36 of the Republican National Convention's 2,380 delegates.

Still, Romney is in line to win at least some small bragging rights in his family. He could finish higher at the convention and win more delegate votes than did his father, George Romney, in his 1968 race for president.

George Romney finished sixth in the GOP convention that year with 50 delegate votes, 44 from his home state of Michigan and six from Utah.

But George Romney survived in his race a bit longer than his son. George withdrew from the 1968 race on Feb. 28. Mitt withdrew three weeks earlier.