Presidential hopefuls are paying extra attention to Wisconsin this year thanks to our primary being pushed up from April to February, and local experts say despite John Kerry's status as front-runner, this could be a horse race because a lot of republicans may cross over and vote for a democratic candidate Tuesday.

Angela Burger is a Political Science Professor at U.W. Marathon County.

"Maybe they're going to cross over to vote for who would be the easiest to beat or to stop Kerry or make him seem somewhat weaker," she says.

But what it will come down to is how the candidates address the problems our state's voters care about. Recent polls and Dr. Burger both say the two most important issues to Wisconsin voters are getting out of Iraq and creating more jobs.

Burger says, "Dean is the only one who, from the beginning, came out against the war. As far as the jobs, I think all of them now are talking about the need for jobs. The question is how to get them.”

Burger adds that northcentral Wisconsin traditionally has some of the highest voter turnout numbers in the state.