County Democrats faced with no contested races for legislative seats and no contestant for the only countywide seat open in 2008, held their county convention Thursday night at the Tooele County Courthouse.

Sixty out of 125 delegates were in attendance.

"It is an off year for elections," said Marianne Rutishauser-Andrus, chairwoman of the Tooele County Democratic Party. "Two years ago when we met at the health department we had people standing in the back and in the halls."

Lacking any business other than the election of state delegates and other routine reports, the convention turned into a rally for Democratic candidates.

Monty Nafoosi, of Bountiful, and a Democrat candidate for governor, was the first candidate to speak. He discussed his plan to eliminate Utah's addiction to foreign oil by building a coordinated network of mass transit and state-owned electric cars.

Bob Springmeyer, of Salt Lake City, another Democratic candidate for governor, was greeted with cheers and applause when he announced that as governor he would have vetoed the senate omnibus education bill and that under his administration, "Utah would not become the nuclear waste dump of the world."

Jean Hill, an attorney for the Utah State Board of Education, said the state needs an attorney general who is more interested in people than politics. She went on to attack predatory lenders and advocate legislative ethic reform.

Jim Gowans, the only incumbent Democratic candidate from Tooele County, is seeking his ninth term in the 21st District House of Representatives seat.

State Democratic Party Vice-Chair Rob Miller praised Gowans ability to work across the aisle to find solutions and get things done.

"Salt Lake City has the largest stronghold of Democrats in the state," Gowans said. "But they think differently than us rural Democrats. We need to get more rural people involved in politics."

The last candidate to speak was Tobiah Dillon, who lives in Tooele and is seeking the 24th District Senate seat, which includes the south end of Tooele City and Juab, Piute, Sanpete, Sevier and Wayne counties.

"Protection of water rights and the preservation of land for farming, ranching and recreation are priorities for the Utah Legislature," Dillon said.

"It was a great convention," said Rutishauser-Andrus. "Attendance was good for an off year and 2008 may well be the year of Democrats in statewide campaigns."

tgillie@tooeletranscript.com