Utah Elections 2014: Democratic and Republican Party Post-Convention Reports - Updated

Several 2014 Utah political sub-plots which will be interesting to watch

The Standard-Examiner is front and center this morning, reporting on the results of yesterday's Utah Democratic and Republican state conventions. In the Utah Congressional District 1 race, Demo and GOP party delegates have set up a rematch between Donna McAleer and Rob Bishop respectively, mirroring the 2012 1st District race:

• Bishop will face McAleer again in general election
• Bishop easily secures GOP nomination

Will the second go-round prove to be the charm for McAleer?  We guess we'll soon find out.

In the State Attorney General's race, GOP nominee Sean Reyes will face a challenge from Democratic Party nominee Charles Stormont, currently a civil litigator in Reyes' own AG office, setting up a contest which is bound to ratchet up intra-office tension:

• GOP makes Reyes attorney general nominee for November
• Utah Dems choose Stormont as attorney general nominee

A smart career move on Stormont's part? This contest ought to provide some very interesting discussion around the AG office water-cooler, if nothing else.

And in a move which we'll characterize as a demonstration of exceedingly bad sportsmanship, it seems that the GOP crackpot faction ram-rodded through a convention resolution which would, if successful, reverse the landmark "Count My Vote" legislative compromise achieved during the 2014 Utah legislative session, which broke the GOP "extremist" nominations stranglehold, and  statutorily established a sensible two-track system for Utah political nominations:  

• Utah GOP pushes back against 'Count My Vote' compromise law

In the wake of the passage of this resolution, state GOP leadership remains "cagey" about precisely how this revisionary tactic would be implemented.  Nevertheless, we're sure that everybody will agree that the development of this story will be interesting to watch.

Update 4/28/14 9:15 a.m.:  Better late than never, Fox News 13 provides a post-convention report on this year's state level Utah Libertarian candidates:

• Utah’s Libertarian Party announces candidates 

Utah State Libertarian Party Chairman Courtney White was pleased by the results, stating, “I’m excited about the slate of candidates we nominated today. Each of them brings something special to the table, and all are dedicated to protecting the liberty of their constituents.”

For the record, your blogmeister believes that our Libertarian WCF friend, Mr. White, "gets it" exactly right.