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ST. PAUL (AP) ― Minnesota elbowed its way closer to the presidential action by moving up the precinct caucuses, which will be held a month from Saturday.
  
But being a Super Tuesday state -- along with behemoths California, Illinois and New York -- doesn't guarantee Minnesota voters will get upgraded from the political bleachers to box seats in the lead-up to Feb. 5. Usually, Minnesota holds its caucuses in March.
  
Democratic organizers are convinced their party's presidential contenders will be active here, including candidate visits in the next four-plus weeks. A preference ballot on caucus night will help determine how the state's 88 delegates to the summer's Democratic National Convention are divvied up.
  
"In the big scheme of things there are bigger states," said DFL Party executive director Andrew O'Leary. "But we are one of the larger medium-sized states."
  
Nearly two dozen states have caucuses or primaries that day, but only six offer a richer batch of Democratic delegates.
  
Republicans in Minnesota have fewer national convention delegates in play -- with 41 -- and their caucus ballot isn't binding. So some in the GOP, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty, expect Minnesota to miss out on the major candidate activity.
  
"They have to put their resources elsewhere because the caucuses or primaries are either earlier or binding," Pawlenty, a co-chairman of Arizona Sen. John McCain's campaign, told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. "The effort here is much more modest here than it is in the other states."
  
Hoping to capitalize on Democrat Barack Obama's Iowa win, local political leaders backing the Illinois senator held an enthusiastic event Friday at the Minnesota Capitol complex. They introduced a 63-member leadership team ranging from mayors to party benefactors to congressmen.
  
Just as Iowa Democrats demolished their caucus turnout record, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison declared Obama's campaign was "set up to blast out the turnout" in Minnesota.
  
Four years ago, more than 50,000 people flocked to Democratic caucuses, a high water mark since the Vietnam War era. It was roughly double the turnout of the Republican caucuses where President Bush's nomination wasn't in doubt.
  
Campaign advisers to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton voiced confidence this week about their Minnesota caucus preparations. National political director Guy Cecil said the campaign has already held training sessions for precinct captains, signed up thousand of volunteers and begun phone bank operations. Cecil predicted a pre-caucus visit by Sen. Clinton or former President Bill Clinton.
  
Backers of fellow Democrat John Edwards said the former North Carolina senator will benefit from the support of key unions, such as the steelworkers who can drive turnout on the all-important Iron Range.
  
"It seems like it's been a three-person race since the beginning and that's what we're looking at here," said state House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, an Edwards supporter from Chisholm.
  
Among the top Republican candidates, most landed endorsements from the state's GOP leaders months ago. Pawlenty is with McCain, Sen. Norm Coleman is with Rudy Giuliani and House Minority Leader Marty Seifert is with Fred Thompson, for instance.
  
Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee is an exception.
  
Gary Borgendale, a conservative activist who is on the Huckabee steering committee, said the former Arkansas governor's Minnesota campaign is only beginning to take shape.
  
There's little expectation that Huckabee will devote any money or time to Minnesota ahead of Feb. 5, Borgendale said. He wouldn't rule it out entirely though.
  
"The Huckabee campaign nationally is a run-and-gun, shoot and maybe aim grass roots environment. But," Borgendale noted, "the grass roots picked up and ran with it in Iowa."
  
Supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said winning in Minnesota will require a broader-based coalition than the evangelical voters that pushed Huckabee over the top in Iowa.
  
"We've got to play the game in two phases," said Romney backer Tony Sutton, a former executive director of the state GOP. "One is on precinct caucus night and the second phase is making sure that Romney supporters get elected delegates to the national convention" in the spring.
  
Sutton said it's too soon to say if Romney would schedule a Minnesota stop.
  
And some Republicans might settle for seeing their preferred candidate months down the campaign trail -- namely the first week in September when the party nomination is conferred during the Republican National Convention at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center.

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