From Deseret News archives:
Delegates converge on Denver — 32 Utah attendees sense a change for better
These are among reasons that Utah's delegates to the Democratic National Convention say they want to help nominate Barack Obama for president. Delegates begin arriving today in Denver for the convention that begins Monday.
Wayne Holland , chairman of the delegation and chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, said, "Our party is excited about this national campaign to a degree I have not seen in all the years I have been involved, many decades now, in Utah politics."
The Utah group will have 28 delegates and four alternates.
A 29th delegate, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is choosing to stay home to campaign and be on hand as a son begins the fourth grade.
Nine delegates are committed to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the rest to Obama. A complete list of the delegation can be found at the graphic link above.
Still, Holland said he expects the convention "to bring the party together in a way I believe we have not seen ever in the past. We are committed to win this election in November."
Delegate Kathleen Snyder said one reason she became a delegate is Obama's "stand on ending the war." It's especially important to her because her son, Army Capt. Brian Freeman, a West Point graduate and national bobsled and skeleton team member, was killed in Iraq two years ago.
About the war, she said, "I think it's futile. It never should have been fought. It's the saddest thing in my life."
Delegate Kurt Bestor, a jazz composer who wrote such things as the theme to "Monday Night Football," said he became persuaded to support Obama while he was in Uganda on a safari and saw how people from other countries reacted when Obama's name came up in discussions.
"When I brought up Obama, the room just lit up," he said, adding others from around the world are excited about the possibility of his leadership. "That's when I became involved with Obama."
Of note, Snyder and Bestor will be followed by different film companies recording experiences of some delegates nationally. Snyder will also be on a panel presented in Denver by Progressive Democrats of America on the topic of "health care, not warfare."
Jordan Apollo Pazell is the third-youngest of all the convention delegates nationwide at age 18. He said health care is the issue he is most concerned about. "I know how hard it is for people to live without health care," he said.
