SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Democrats are trying to capitalize on the chaos from last week's GOP state convention by promising their delegates won't spend hours haggling over party issues when they meet Saturday.

"We're going to have as much good, positive energy there as we can," Utah Democratic Party Chairwoman Daisy Thomas said of the Democratic state convention, set to start 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Salt Palace.

Thomas is so sure Democrats will be done sooner than the eight-plus hours Republicans spent at their April 21 convention, she and other party leaders are donating an hour of volunteer service for every hour they shave from that time.

But Thomas acknowledges Democrats will have their own debates.

"It's also our platform convention, so there's going to be some contention, I'm sure. But we'll get through it. We always do," she said.

At the top of the Democratic convention agenda is the first round of voting in choosing nominees in the U.S. Senate and congressional races as well as in three multi-county legislative races, or sending candidates to the June primary.

Neither Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, seeking the seat held by Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, or Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, a U.S. Senate candidate, gathered voter signatures to guarantee they'll be on the primary ballot.

"We feel very confident heading into convention," McAdams' campaign manager, Andrew Roberts, said. "We expect a rigorous debate on the issues and on the values that matter to Utahns, but we fully anticipate winning."

Besides McAdams, the Democrats seeking to challenge Love, who has no Republican opposition, are Darlene McDonald, Sheldon Kirkman, Morgan Shepherd and Tom Taylor.

In the race for the seat held by retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Republican delegates sent both the party's 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, and state Rep. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine, to a primary election. Democrats will choose from Wilson, Larry Livingston and Mitchell Vice on Saturday.

Wilson said she's spent many late nights getting ready for the convention and has "been connecting with delegates from all 29 counties and feels confident. But we are taking nothing for granted and are hard at work."

Thomas said she's excited at having so many Democrats running for office, but wants to see the races settled at convention "because then we can get our boots on the ground" for November's election.

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Like Republicans, Democrats require candidates to win the support of more than 60 percent of delegates to be nominated at convention. However, once the race is down to two candidates, Democrats give them a second chance to reach the threshold.

If multiple rounds of voting are needed in any of the races, they'll come after the debate over the party platform, according to the agenda.

Thomas said the party platform revisions proposed by a committee are an attempt to take "a more broader-based approach" in stating the positions of Utah Democrats.

That means a number of "hard-fought for issues" like legalizing medical marijuana have been removed, she said, so there will be an effort to amend those back into the proposed platform.

The current platform is 21 pages and details stands on a wide range of areas including animal rights, immigration, LGBTQ and religious freedom. "Utah Democrats: Thriving Together," the proposed platform, is just two pages.

It compresses the stands on more than 30 areas to six categories, leaving out, for example, a statement affirming the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the legal right to abortion.

Thomas herself is behind Saturday's effort to restore "the right for patients to use whole-plant medical cannabis under a licensed physician," in the platform. There's no mention of medical marijuana in the proposal.

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"An amendment was made by me, since I sponsored it last time, on behalf of all of the patients of this state to avoid this opioid crisis. It's something I think this state needs to stand firm for," Thomas said, and especially Democrats.

The party chairwoman said she will argue for the amendment from the convention floor if necessary, even though she wanted to avoid getting involved in the platform debate, because advocates sought her help.

Gov. Gary Herbert and other Republicans have opposed a citizens' initiative to legalize medical marijuana, although backers have turned in more than enough voter signatures to qualify to put the issue on the November ballot.

The split among Democrats from the 2016 presidential primary election is still there, said Thomas, who was a national delegate for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the winner of that year's Utah's Democratic caucus vote.

"The majority of us are all on the same side," she said, noting any remaining rift between supporters of Sanders and the party's eventual nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, shouldn't be evident at the state convention.

Still, Thomas said, Democrats benefit from those differences.

"There always should be people to the left of us. That's a valuable piece that keeps us aware if we're pulled too far to the right," she said. "It helps center us back to where we need to focus."

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