Cannon creamed him in that primary election, despite his help from God, and two years later he had bolted from the Republican Party, running for governor on the Independent American Party ticket.

He made some news that year by going on a nearly 40-day hunger strike to protest his exclusion from gubernatorial debates between then-Gov. Mike Leavitt and Democratic challenger Bill Orton. Friedbaum also was protesting the news media's lack of interest in his campaign.

The Orem harp maker lost that race, too.

That's why it's a reasonable bet that Republican State Chairman Joe Cannon will be re-elected at the GOP's organizing convention Saturday. Friedbaum, who apparently is a Republican again, is the best-known opponent facing Cannon at the convention.

The other challenger is Patrick S. Reagan. He does not have quite the colorful past that Friedbaum boasts and his credentials are good: He possesses MBA and law degrees from Brigham Young University and founded his own business.

But, despite his convenient last name and his unsuccessful bid for Salt Lake County Republican chair earlier this year, he is pretty much a political newcomer and a relative unknown against the veteran, high-profile Cannon.

That Cannon doesn't have a more threatening challenger is an indication that the Utah Republican Party is settling into a moderate political force after flirting with its right-wing fringes over the past few years.

The convention this year will entertain debate from some disgruntled delegates over a new rule mandating that only the party's Constitution and Bylaws Committee be permitted to propose rule changes in the organization. The old rule allowed delegates to offer amendments from the floor, but party officials say that led to long, drawn-out debates and compelled most delegates to leave before any votes were cast.

The rebel delegates say this is the latest example of the party elite stifling the voices of rank-and-file Republicans, and Friedbaum is making the issue a central one in his campaign.

But that grumble seems to be losing the luster it once had, when convention delegates booed Leavitt and Sen. Orrin Hatch and forced Leavitt into a primary with a previously unknown candidate in 2000.

Even the stalwart ultra-conservative groups like the Eagle Forum and Accountability Utah don't seem to have the clout in the party infrastructure they once had.

When Joe Cannon spoke to the annual meeting of the Eagle Forum a few years ago, he was shouted off his dais for suggesting they support whatever Republican survives the convention and primary, even if that Republican was not as conservative as they would like. Any Republican is better than a Democrat, he argued.

But the group disagreed, arguing that principle, not party, is paramount.

That refrain has dimmed. Hatch and Sen. Bob Bennett, both conservative Republicans, are not willing to follow the conservative path of their president on stem-cell research. Their so-called liberal stance in favor of further support for that research hasn't seemed to hurt them in Utah. House Speaker Greg Curtis is more moderate than his predecessor, Marty Stephens, who was more moderate than his predecessor, Mel Brown.

And even though Matt Throckmorton used the anti-illegal-immigrant pitch last year to force Rep. Chris Cannon into a primary, just barely, one-issue candidates are faring poorly these days against more moderate Republicans.

So it would not be too surprising if State Rep. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, decides to stay in the Legislature instead of challenging Hatch at the Republican convention next year.

While Urquhart has already announced he is in the race, he doesn't have to file until next March. That gives him seven months to assess his chances, which are next to nothing if he is unable to eliminate Hatch at the convention by getting 60 percent of the delegate vote.

To do that, he must cater to the right-wing element, as Throckmorton did to get his 31 percent against Cannon.

That seemed to be Urquhart's strategy recently when he was a guest on a conservative K-TALK radio program. Like Throckmorton, expect Urquhart to use the immigration card since Hatch is the Senate sponsor of the "Dream Act," which is legislation to give in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants if those children attended high school in that state.

Cannon is the House sponsor of that federal proposal and Throckmorton hammered on that issue almost exclusively. Urquhart is part of a legislative faction trying to repeal the state version of the Dream Act that passed the Utah Legislature a few years ago.

Joe Cannon's showing at Saturday's convention and the delegates' response to the anti-establishment "patriots" should indicate to Urquhart whether there is enough unrest among the natives to dislodge an incumbent as firmly established as Hatch.