This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

Utah Democrats should be thrilled at the turnout Tuesday to the party's caucuses since, let's face it, the party has almost become the forgotten stepchild in the Beehive State.

An estimated 78,000 Democrats voted in the caucuses for president. The meetings also selected delegates and party precinct officers.

The number is astounding when you consider in past years many of the caucuses would be held in a precinct chair's living room, and they still couldn't fill all the chairs and couches that were set up.

Several caucuses reported between 1,000 and 2,000 attendees and some of the chosen locations were woefully inadequate to handle the crowds. That should spell optimism for Utah Democrats heading into the November election, but there is a downside to the party's newly found enthusiasm.

The Democrats only have 12 members in the 75-member House of Representatives, with all but one representing districts in Salt Lake County.

The Democrats struggle to stay relevant and often complain about being ignored by the large Republican super-majority. The Democrats' pet issues get tossed aside while legislation they reflexively oppose are railroaded through without a second thought.

Democrats have had to painfully sit by and watch the Republican majority commit $4.5 million of taxpayer money to a proposed lawsuit to force the transfer of 31 million acres of public lands from federal to state control, despite most legal observers' warning that the effort is tilting at windmills.

They have had to watch the state approve a $53 million project to transport Utah coal to a deep-water port in California for foreign export.

They have had to sit by and watch all sorts of things that bring anxiety to the average Democrat.

So every one of those seats held by Democrats in the House is precious.

And now, six of the 12 Democratic incumbents in the House have a challenger from within their own party.

That can be expected on the Republican side. The GOP is so large it can have several factions competing against each other and still prevail in the general election.

Not so with the Democrats. Money spent in a convention or primary fight weakens the candidate in the general election against a Republican and whatever other parties field a candidate.

The reason, of course, is the excitement among Democrats over the presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders. He has brought out voters and supporters who haven't been politically active until now.

Of the 78,000 who voted in the Democratic caucuses, Sanders won nearly 80 percent of them.

But the same type of Democrat excited by Sanders — often young, progressive minded and relatively new to the process — is motivated to bring new blood into the Democrats' presence at the Legislature.

So incumbents Susan Duckworth, Rebecca Chavez-Houck, Joel Briscoe, Lynn Hemingway, Mark Wheatley and Carol Spackman Moss — all of Salt Lake County — have to get past Democratic challengers before they face off with Republican opponents in the fall.

The six incumbents challenged within their own part have a combined 53 years experience in the Legislature, which now will be challenged by their own party.

The Sanders-fueled political environment that brought this shakeup among Democrats about is somewhat reminiscent of the late 1960s and early '70s, when long-haired Vietnam War protesters cut their teeth on anti-establishment rallies at the University of Utah and then became Democratic delegates and, in some cases, legislative candidates.

Some of the rebels actually won seats in the Legislature, although they didn't last more than one or two terms and sometimes showed ignorance at how the legislative process works.

That group was dominant at the 1974 State Democratic Convention when young upstart Congressman Wayne Owens challenged Don Holbrook, a long-respected attorney in Salt Lake City, for the party's nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat.

Holbrook had the support of the Democratic establishment, including Gov. Calvin Rampton and Sen. Ted Moss. Owens had the protest crowd, young and rowdy and similar to the Bernie Sanders army of today.

When Rampton, the sitting governor and the presumptive leader of the party, rose to nominate Holbrook, he was booed by the delegates.

Owens beat Holbrook in the convention then lost the general election to Republican Jake Garn. —