They’ve been vying for control of the Michigan polls for months, but tomorrow, Mitt Romney and John McCain will be battling for first place in the state’s presidential primary.

It wasn’t too long ago that polls indicated Romney had a firm grasp on Michigan – as well he should, it’s his home turf. Family politicos made their bones in the great lakes state: Mitt Romney’s father was the state’s governor and in 1868 made his own bid for president, his mother was a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Son of political nobility, it’s no shock that Romney (whose first name, it happens, is Willard and whose middle name is ‘Mitt”) grew up in Bloomfield Hills, a tony Detroit suburb, attending private school and, of course, LDS temple.

And many from Michigan are on his side. GOP-rich Western Michigan’s local paper, the Grand Rapids Press, lent him their endorsement, as did Detroit’s Oakland Press, and even Rep. Pete Hoekstra is working on the campaign as Mitt’s national security advisor.

Even the DailyKos is for him.

Romney long counted on a home-grown Michigan success… so why the nerves?

The latest polls have the native son neck-and-neck with John McCain – McCain leading with 27 percent and Romney tagging one short point behind.

The polls have been mixed over the past few days, too. From Sunday’s X Curmudgeon:

Six polls have been released in Michigan covering interviews conducted January 9 or later. Of those, three give Romney the lead and three give McCain the lead, with the largest lead for Romney at 8% and the largest for McCain at 7%. Huckabee is in third, about 9 points back.

Not everyone even believed McCain would make it this far, but suddenly, he’s not only in the lead in Michigan, but also nationally. McCain won the state in 2000, just as he did New Hampshire, and this time around he's got the state's Republican national committewoman working as co-chairperson for his campaign. And a Michigan win would nearly cinch his presidential prospects.

Take the dead heat race and add in the political volatility the state still feels after trying to push up it’s primary, and you’ve got yourself a toss-up.

And it's no better on the left. Apparently a defacto agreement to abstain from the ballots was made among Democratic candidates, but Clinton, Kucinich, and Gravel didn’t get the memo. Or just didn’t care if they did.

Besides Clinton, candidates Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are also on the Democratic ballot. Backers of other candidates have been told to vote Uncommitted. Write-in votes will not be counted. If Uncommitted wins 15% of the vote in a congressional district, delegates will be chosen later to represent other candidates such as Obama and Edwards, Riegle said.

Sen. Don Riegle, enraged that Clinton is on the ballot, is campaigning at rallies throughout the state to remind voters to declare themselves “uncommitted” – a steep request for Dems who, in this election at least, have shown that while “undecided” might be right up their ally, “uncommitted” certainly is not.