This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Perhaps the most interesting development in politics this week was Mitt Romney's silence on the Republican presidential nomination after heavy speculation he would endorse Marco Rubio.

If Romney was going to endorse someone, this week would have been the time to do it, heading into the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday, where Romney won handily in 2008 and 2012 and still wields considerable influence in the Mormon stronghold.

Some in the GOP establishment hoped Romney could help Rubio and slow the momentum of Donald Trump, seen as the outsider candidate.

Romney's decision to stay quiet has led to another speculation: He may be setting his sights on a possible open national convention in July if no candidate can secure the necessary 1,236 delegates for the nomination.

In such a case, most of the delegates would be released from their commitments after the first ballot and the nomination process would start all over again.

After the first ballot, names are placed on the convention floor, and eight state or territory delegations would have to approve the nomination before it could be considered.

If four or five candidates are still in the running, and each one would need eight delegations, it spreads things pretty thin.

But Utah State Republican Chairman James Evans has already been meeting with delegations and has said he has seven secured for a Romney nomination at the national convention in Cleveland.

Also, the eight-delegation requirement can be changed by the Convention Rules Committee on the eve of the convention. That happened in 2012, and there is a bit of an irony to it.

The previous rule was five delegations needed to place someone in nomination on the floor. But the Romney people pushed to raise the bar to eight, fearing a cabal from the supporters of Ron Paul trying to sneak the libertarian candidate into the mix at the last minute.

This year, Romney supporters have behind the scenes pushed to change the rule back to five delegations or less, giving him a better chance to ride into the nomination as the dark horse.

But those insiders opposing a rule change that would lower the requirement include Ted Cruz supporters, who want to make it more difficult for someone like Romney to stir up the mix.

Many of the Cruz supporters were formerly Ron Paul supporters who wanted the lower threshold last time.

The idea of an open convention that could go multiple ballots with candidates spurting into consideration at the last minute is intriguing.

The most recent multiple-ballot conventions were in the 1952 Democratic convention, when Adlai Stevenson was finally picked, and the 1948 Republican convention, when Thomas Dewey became the nominee. Both lost in the general election.

The last nominee picked in a "brokered" convention who became president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932.

One of the most raucous conventions was the 1924 Democratic convention, where the divisions between "Wets" and "Drys" on Prohibition led to 102 ballots of deadlock between front-runners Alfred E. Smith and William G. McAdoo before dark horse John W. Davis was chosen as a compromise candidate on the 103rd ballot. He then lost to Calvin Coolidge in the general election.

James K. Polk became the compromise candidate after eight ballots of deadlock at the 1844 Democratic convention, and he became the nation's 11th president.

Similarly, Warren G. Harding was nominated as a compromise after eight ballots at the 1920 Republican convention, and he became the 29th U.S. president.

There was no clear winner heading into the 1976 Republican Convention but, after bitter floor fights, President Gerald Ford squeaked out enough uncommitted delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot over Ronald Reagan.

The Utah delegation was the most rabid pro-Reagan delegation at that convention and, during the floor debates, a Reagan campaign sign had somehow ended up where the nearby New York delegation sat. Nelson Rockefeller, Ford's vice president, jokingly grabbed the sign and placed it under his seat, which angered Utah delegate Doug Bischoff, who had been a long-time state senator.

Bischoff tried to retrieve the sign, but Rockefeller resisted and the two engaged in an awkward-looking wrestling match on national TV.

Bischoff was escorted off the convention floor and Rockefeller quipped to reporters that perhaps the delegate from Utah had partied a little harder than most.

Bischoff, a devout Mormon, was outraged that Rockefeller implied he had been drinking and threatened to sue for defamation.

Ah, the good old days. —