Utah Republicans: Cannon hangs on for primary race

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, caused quite a stir when he said all Utahns need to get behind GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Utahns gave Mitt Romney, a member of the LDS Church, a 90 percent victory Feb. 5. Romney has since dropped out of the race.

The comment was met with scattered boos from the audience, with a mixture of applause. Hatch said if Republicans don't get with McCain, then Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will win, "and that will be an absolute catastrophe" for America.

After a McCain video ran, a number of delegates shouted for a Ron Paul video, but there was no such video. And most of the slate of 36 McCain national delegates won, even though there was an alternative slate of delegates, many of whom would have voted for Paul on the first ballot at the national convention.

An effort by party leaders to allow the GOP national delegates to put aside Romney's huge (90 percent) win in the Utah — and vote for McCain in the first round of voting in the September GOP national convention — failed.

Now, all 36 of Utah's national GOP delegates must vote for Romney in the first round. "It might be a little embarrassing to cast our votes for Romney when everyone else voted for McCain" at the national convention, said Utah GOP vice chairman Todd Weiler.

Romney had asked the state party to pass a resolution to switch the state's votes to McCain, but the resolution was postponed indefinitely.

"They're bound to vote for Romney. Whether they vote for Romney is another issue," said Weiler. "I think there will be a lot of temptation" to disregard party rules and vote for McCain (maybe a few for Paul) anyway. When asked what would happen to a delegate who refused to vote for Romney, Weiler said, "We'll find out."

Weiler said the state central committee could vote in June to adopt the McCain resolution and clear up the mess. -->

Several multicounty contested Utah House and Senate races were also decided Saturday. Those results include:

• House District 20, Rep. Paul Neuenschwander, R-Bountiful, has a primary with Becky Edwards.

• House District 54, David Labrum and Kraig Power are in a primary.

• Senate District 13, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, won renomination.

• Senate District 19, Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, won renomination.

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