So far, that isn't happening.

The Democrats hold no statewide elective offices, control a paltry 32 percent of the seats in the State Senate and 25 percent in the House and boast just one of the five members of the state's congressional delegation.

They seem to have no one on the horizon with even a sniff of a chance for a statewide office; their puny handful of legislators are often engaged in petty squabbles with each other and one of the party's deep-pocket contributors has sworn off any future support for the one Utah Democrat in Washington, Rep. Jim Matheson.

The party even seems to flip-flop (to borrow a popular Republican term) every two years on the direction it wants to go with its state leadership.

In the midst of the upheaval between party officials lurks that never-ending battle at the state Legislature between bankers who want large credit unions to be taxed and credit unions that want bankers to get off their backs.

Democrats seem to naturally fall into the credit union camp. They voted overwhelmingly against attempts to tax the credit unions two years ago and in the last go-around at the Legislature, most of them opposed a resolution backed by the banks that advocated certain impositions be placed on larger credit unions.

So some Democrats were bemused when then-State Democratic Chairman Donald Dunn advocated that the bank-backed resolution get at least a few Democratic votes to guard against the potential loss of banker contributions.

Dunn and former Democratic State Sen. Blaze Wharton, a partner in Tetris Corp., one of the banks' lobbyists, met with Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, and urged that Davis help secure at least two or three Democratic senators for the "aye" column when the resolution emerged for a vote.

The significance in meeting with Davis is that he is chairman of the Senate Democrats' political action committee which seeks political contributions for Democratic Senate candidates.

Davis said he was never threatened with a pullout of banker contributions to the Democrats' PAC, although Davis has seen a drop in political contributions to his own campaign fund from bankers since he personally took a position in favor of the credit unions.

Dunn said he joined Wharton in the meeting with Davis to protect the interests of the party. He said he strove to maintain good relations with both banks and credit unions in order to keep the financial support from both groups flowing into party coffers.

Dunn's motives were questioned by some later when he announced he would not seek re-election as chairman because he was accepting a job as president of Vigilant, a St. Louis-based lobbying company which happens to be in partnership with Tetris, the bank-friendly lobbying firm that Wharton works for.

Dunn insists, however, that his meeting with Davis and Wharton had nothing to do with any future jobs, but to protect the interests of the party.

Meanwhile, Meg Holbrook, Dunn's predecessor at the helm of the state party organization, also has worked to strengthen ties between the banks and the Democratic Party.

Holbrook is now a lobbyist for Zions Bank and some in the party believe she played a part in Zions' decision to pull its support from the Human Rights Campaign's Utah gala dinner because of the organization's strong position for gay rights.

Holbrook, when she was chairwoman, openly recruited active LDS Democrats to run for public office, following the philosophy that the Democrats need to strengthen their ties to the dominant Mormon culture to have any success in elections.

The competing philosophy, which Dunn more closely personified, focused on keeping the traditional party coalitions involved, including gay and lesbian organizations and pro-choice groups.

But Holbrook held a fundraiser Thursday for Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, the Senate's only openly gay member and one of just two senators who voted in favor of the banks' amendment.

Bruce Bastian, a leader in the gay-rights movement in Utah and a co-founder of WordPerfect, helped fund Dunn's $76,000 salary as party chairman, but has pulled that contribution since Dunn has stepped down and Wayne Holland, the choice of Congressman Matheson, was elected as chair.

Bastian says his agreement with Dunn was always scheduled to expire when Dunn left office and has nothing to do with Holland or with Holbrook. He plans to meet with Holland soon and he considers himself still a supportive Utah Democrat.

But he will not support Matheson because of the Democrat's support of a marriage amendment precluding gays from such unions.