Plan for new Michigan Democratic primary falters

Voters leave a polling station after voting in Michigan's primary election in Warren, Michigan, January 15, 2008.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Michigan Democratic Party leaders on Tuesday said a proposal to re-run the state's contested presidential primary in June, which could potentially benefit the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, was stalled and unlikely to be approved before a deadline this week.

Opposition from lawmakers backing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's campaign seemed certain to scuttle any proposal to hold a June 3 "do-over" Democratic primary in the Midwestern state.

"There are definitely not enough votes now to support the proposal," said Callie Collins, a spokeswoman for state Sen. Tupac Hunter, co-chairman of Obama's campaign in Michigan.

Democratic primaries held in Michigan and Florida in January were invalidated by the national party because both states disobeyed party directives and held their balloting earlier to have a greater say in the selection of candidates.

New York Sen. Clinton won Michigan's January 15 primary in Michigan, although Obama removed his name from the ballot and neither candidate actively campaigned in the state.

Florida dropped its bid on Monday to re-run that state's January 29 Democratic primary, also won by Clinton.

The two are locked in a tight race to become the party nominee in November, and the standoff over what to do with the disputed primaries and the delegates chosen has threatened to disrupt the Democratic convention in late August.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a prominent Clinton supporter, has supported the idea of a re-run primary despite opposition from other Democrats and state Republicans.

Critics have questioned plans to have private donors pay the estimated $12 million cost, the logistics of holding a statewide vote on short notice and a rule that would bar independents and Democrats who voted in the January Republican primary from voting in the re-run contest.

Granholm saw a re-run primary "as the fairest way to resolve the seating of delegates," her spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. "We're glad the Clinton campaign agrees. We respectfully hope the Obama campaign will agree."

Michigan Republicans, who control the state Senate, said they would not take up the primary bill unless the Democratic party came together behind it.

The deadline for approving another primary is Thursday, when the lower House begins a two-week recess, lawmakers said.

Michigan has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1992. State officials had hoped the January primary would focus attention on the state's slumping economy and the deepening problems of the U.S. auto industry.

A poll last week by the Marketing Resource Group for the Inside Michigan Politics newsletter showed Michigan voters divided over which candidate they would support, and whether the primary should be rerun at all.

Obama led Clinton 44 percent to 43 percent among likely Michigan voters, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.

"That's a close to a dead heat as you can get," said pollster Paul King.

(Additional reporting by Nick Carey; editing by Andrew Stern and Todd Eastham)