OREM — Promoting themselves as Utah County's "mainstream party," about 150 Democrats met Saturday at Orem Junior High School for the Utah County Democratic Party convention.
"If you want to be with the extremist party, they meet next week," said Chairman Richard Davis, referring to the Utah County Republican Party convention on April 25 at Mountain View High School. "We don't boo our elected officials."
To prove the point, convention delegates gave a warm reception to Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who has come under fire within party circles for voting with House Republicans against the health care reform package.
There was some gentle ribbing, however, as Alan Keele, who is running for Utah House District 60, held up a poster which included a drawing of a brown dog and told Matheson, "Sorry, Jim. I should have had them color the dog blue."
Matheson was wooing delegates for the May 8 state Democratic Party convention, where he'll be challenged by Claudia Wright. The boundaries for Utah's 2nd Congressional District include the northeast corner of Utah County, including American Fork, Lehi, Alpine and Highland.
Wright was the only Democratic candidate for national, state or county office who didn't attend the gathering Saturday. Mike Picardi, her campaign manager, who did attend the convention, said Wright was in Washington County.
Matheson didn't mention the Health Care Act vote but instead referred to several pieces of legislation he supported that other members of the Utah congressional delegation voted against, such as a bill extending unemployment and COBRA benefits and legislation that provides funds to train EMTs to treat injured children.
"When you take thousands of votes, you have to take a stand on every one of them," Matheson told the delegates. "I told people when I was elected we wouldn't agree on every one of them. What people should expect is that they take a thoughtful approach and make the right decision."
Major themes of the convention included family values, support for public education and offering Utah County voters an alternative to legislators who were characterized as being ultraconservative and out of touch with the majority of moderate Republicans in the area.
"We have a big-tent philosophy that allows people like me, who was a lifelong Republican, to run on the Democratic ticket because I'm fed up with some of the things I see," said Karen Hyer, who is challenging Jason Chaffetz in Utah's 3rd Congressional District.
State Senate Majority Leader Pat Jones, who delivered the keynote address, spoke about her frustration working with a Republican-dominated Legislature.
Quoting from the LDS Church website that encourages civility in political discourse, she added, "We have reasonable Democrats right here ready to work with any reasonable Republicans they can possibly find.
"You are standing up for things that are important to the majority of Utahns," Jones said.
Utah County Democrats have fielded candidates for 11 Utah House seats, two Senate seats and the two Utah County Commission seats up for election this year ?— a remarkable turnout for a county in which Democrats have been almost nonexistent until 2008, when Davis started actively recruiting candidates, said Utah State Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland
"No county in the state has come further in the past two (election) cycles," Holland said.
e-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com