LANSING, Mich. (AP) — With the presidential field
scrambled in unexpected ways by John Kerry’s Iowa win,
Michigan Democrats say the state is even more likely to play an
important role in selecting the nominee when the state picks its
Democratic presidential favorite on Feb. 7.

“The race is really wide open,” Michigan Democratic
Party Executive Chairman Mark Brewer said Monday night after the
Iowa results were announced. “I think we’ll see more
attention now from the candidates.”

He added that Michigan will be the largest state — and the
only major industrial state — to vote for a Democratic
favorite until elections are held in early March in several major
states, including New York, California and Ohio.

“We’re the big prize in the first two months,”
Brewer said. “How many delegates were at stake tonight, 40?
We have 153.”

Former Gov. James Blanchard, one of the leaders of Kerry’s
Michigan campaign, said he expects the Kerry campaign to begin
pouring resources into the state now that the U.S. senator from
Massachusetts has to extend his planning further down the political
calendar.

“In Michigan, the campaign probably begins in earnest
tomorrow,” Blanchard said in a phone call from Washington,
D.C.

“I think he (Kerry) is going to do very well in Michigan,
although I concede we’re going to have to come from
behind,” he said.

Blanchard said the Kerry campaign has been focusing its
resources so far on Iowa and New Hampshire, which holds its
presidential caucuses on Jan. 27, the second contest in the race to
the nomination.

He predicts that will change now that Kerry has the Iowa win and
can build on that for later states.

Delaware, South Carolina, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico,
Virginia, Oklahoma and North Dakota will be holding primaries or
caucuses on Feb. 3, just four days before the Michigan
caucuses.

Blanchard and Dan Mulhern, Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s
husband, sent a letter recently to 5,000 precinct delegates and
Democratic party officers urging them to hold off voting until
after they saw how Kerry did in the earlier contests.

“I think most people have wisely ... not cast their
votes,” Blanchard said. “You might end up voting for
someone who drops out of the race or who you decide under careful
scrutiny is not who you want.”

A ballot cast now could be a wasted vote for anyone out of the
race by Feb. 7. The candidate would still get Michigan delegates,
but may decide to relinquish them to someone still in the race.

A recent statewide poll among likely Democratic caucus voters
showed former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean doing the best in Michigan,
with U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri coming in closest behind
Dean.

But Gephardt, who finished fourth in Iowa, signaled his
intentions Monday night to withdraw from the race.

That may have created an opportunity for Dean, who already has
the support of two major unions with about 100,000 Michigan
members. Gephardt had the backing of unions with more than 150,000
Michigan members, all of whom will be fought over by the candidates
left in the race.

“We’re going to try every day for the next 17 days
to earn the votes of the men and women in labor who supported
him,” said Daren Berringer, Dean’s Michigan
director.

Berringer said he expects Dean to hold onto his edge in Michigan
despite his third-place finish in Iowa.

We’re leading in New Hampshire. We’re leading in the
Feb. 3 states. We’re leading in Michigan,” he said. The
Dean campaign has been urging its Michigan supporters to vote
before the Feb. 7 caucuses by mail or over the Internet, and will
intensify that message in coming days.

Brewer said it’s hard to tell if Michigan voters will be
more likely to vote early now that the Iowa contest is over or to
wait and see what happens in New Hampshire and other early states.
More than 23,000 voters have applied for ballots so far, but only
about 1,000 had voted as of late last week.

“Now that we have one election behind us, people will feel
better informed and may be willing to start casting more
votes,” Brewer said.