Daily Kos Elections Utah convention preview and results open thread

While many eyes in the electoral junkie universe are peeled on the co-main events on Tuesday in Pennsylvania (Holden-Cartwright in PA-17 and Altmire-Critz in PA-12), the Beehive State of Utah offers us a whale of an undercard this weekend as Democrats and Republicans convene for statewide conventions which have the ability to short-circuit primary elections in key races across the state.

In fact, both parties will be meeting at this hour to begin the process of candidate selection. The Democrats will be meeting at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, while the Republicans will be downstate a few miles at the South Towne Expo Center in suburban Sandy. These conventions have a critical element to them electorally, because a candidate who can attain 60 percent support among the delegates automatically claims the nomination for that seat, eliminating the prospects of a June primary to determine the nominee. If no candidate can manage to snare 60 percent support, then the top two votegetters will go heads-up in June.

These conventions got fairly wide attention in 2010, when the Republican convention effectively ended the career of longtime U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett. Bennett, you will recall, ran third behind GOP candidates Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater at the convention, eliminating him from the June primary. Lee went on to claim the nomination in the primary, and proceeded to win an easy general election victory.

Initially, prospects of a similar fate befalling longtime Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) seemed likely. A year ago, it was largely assumed that upstart GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz would run for the Senate, and that Hatch might be extremely vulnerable to his challenge. Chaffetz's decision to forgo a Senate bid increased Hatch's chances for re-election exponentially, though he still faces a pair of intraparty rivals.

What follows is a quick sketch of the major battles on tap today in both parties. For a local's take of the races today, you can check the perspective of longtime Utah political editor Bob Bernick. You are also, of course, more than welcome to use the comments section as a thread for discussing the results, since this is not an event for which Daily Kos Elections is planning a liveblog.