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In what he characterized "a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play," Politico's Jonathan Martin this afternoon reported that John McCain is effectively ceding the state of Michigan to rival Barack Obama.

Martin, citing two Republicans, wrote that the McCain campaign would stop running ads and mailing out appeals in the state and would send his staff there elsewhere.

CBS News has confirmed that the McCain campaign will take down most of its advertising in Michigan, though the Republican National Committee continues advertising in the state. Most of the campaign's Michigan staff will remain in place, however, according to a McCain advisor.

"The move away from Michigan reflects the abandonment of any pretense that McCain can spend freely to expand the map for Republicans this year, and it's a sign that the campaign recognizes how the past two weeks have erased nearly all of McCain's gains since August," writes CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder.

A Selzer & Co. poll of Michigan likely voters taken between Sept. 22nd and 24th showed Obama leading McCain 51 percent to 38 percent. A CNN/Time/ORC survey taken around the same time showed a tighter race in the state, with Obama leading 51 percent to 46 percent. Seventeen electoral votes are up for grabs in the state.

In what he characterized as "a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play," Politico's Jonathan Martin this afternoon reported that John McCain is effectively ceding the state of Michigan to rival Barack Obama.

Martin, citing two Republicans, wrote that the McCain campaign would stop running ads and mailing out appeals in the state and would send its staff there elsewhere.

CBS News has confirmed that the McCain campaign will take down most of its advertising in Michigan, though the Republican National Committee continues advertising in the state. Most of the campaign's Michigan staff will remain in place, however, according to a McCain advisor.

"The move away from Michigan reflects the abandonment of any pretense that McCain can spend freely to expand the map for Republicans this year, and it's a sign that the campaign recognizes how the past two weeks have erased nearly all of McCain's gains since August," writes CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder.

A Selzer & Co. poll of Michigan likely voters taken between Sept. 22nd and 24th showed Obama leading McCain 51 percent to 38 percent. A CNN/Time/ORC survey taken around the same time showed a tighter race, with Obama leading 51 percent to 46 percent.

Seventeen electoral votes are up for grabs in the state.

(DENVER) Remember when you were in junior high school and all of the cool kids sat at the back of the school bus? Political conventions work the same way, only in reverse, with a few privileged delegations getting the best seats at the Pepsi Center.

Yesterday, I took a stroll across the convention floor where workers were putting up the final placards to mark the seating locations for the 56 delegations (50 states, American Samoa, The District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, and Democrats abroad).

Front and center is the delegation from Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois, flanked by Delaware (Joe Biden’s home state) and Colorado (the host state). The delegates from Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean’s home state of Vermont also get front-row seats.

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UPDATED Barack Obama has sent a letter to the co-chairs of the Democratic National Convention’s Credentials Committee urging them to pass a resolution allowing the Democratic delegations from Florida and Michigan to be fully represented at the Democratic National Convention.

The states were stripped of their delegates as punishment for moving their primaries before February 5th in violation of Democratic National Committee rules. They were awarded half-votes at a May meeting.

The Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns sparred during the primaries over how the delegates from the two states would be allocated, with the debate centering on whether the allocation would be based on the popular vote or some other measure. Clinton won both states, though Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan, complicating efforts to award delegates.

As Clinton looked to keep her campaign alive towards the end of the primary process, she called on the DNC to fully seat the delegations from the two states. The Obama campaign, which would have been hurt in its battle for the nomination had the delegations been fully seated at that point, did not join Clinton's call.

A Democratic source told CBS News today that Obama walked a "fine line" during the primary by deferring to the DNC while Clinton was using the question of full representation issue as a rallying point.

"...I believe Party unity calls for the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be able to participate fully alongside the delegates from the other states and territories," Obama wrote in the letter. "Accordingly, I ask that the Credentials Committee, when it meets on August 24 to approve the delegates for the National Convention, pass a resolution that would entitle each delegate from Florida and Michigan to cast a full vote."

He continued:

"As a candidate for the nomination, I supported the DNC’s efforts to establish and enforce a schedule for primaries and caucuses that would broaden the opportunity for Democrats from all regions of the country and all backgrounds and walks of life to have a meaningful voice....As we prepare to come together in Denver, however, we must be – and will be – united in our determination to change the course of our nation. To that end, Democrats in Florida and Michigan must know that they are full partners and colleagues in our historic mission to reshape Washington and lead our country in a new direction."

The DNC released a statement in response to the letter.

"Today we received a letter from Senator Obama requesting that the Convention's Credentials Committee grant each delegate from Florida and Michigan a full vote. We deeply appreciate and value Senator Obama's perspective on this important issue. This matter will be the top priority for the Credentials Committee when we meet on August 24th. As always our goal is to ensure a fair process and a unified Democratic Party so that we can win in November."

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FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.

Scott Romney, the older brother of John McCain’s former GOP rival Mitt Romney, will become a co-chairman of the McCain campaign in Michigan, CBSNews.com confirms.

Both Romney brothers were in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on Monday to mark the opening of John McCain’s Great Lakes regional headquarters. In his opening remarks to the crowd of over 200 people, Chuck Yob, McCain’s state chairman, referred to Scott Romney as “our new co-chair.”

When asked about his new role in his brother’s former rival’s campaign, Scott Romney told CBSNews.com that the announcement was not supposed to be made public yet.

But Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis confirmed that Romney, an attorney, would take on a formal role in the McCain campaign.

“That’s big because not only is that [Mitt's] brother, but he’s a leader here,” Anuzis said.

Scott and Mitt Romney were born and raised in Michigan, where their father George was governor from 1963 to 1969. The family name still resonates in the state, and Romney won the Jan. 15 primary, beating McCain by nine points.

Just ahead of tomorrow's meeting of the Democratic National Committee's rules committee to decide how to count the delegates from Florida and Michigan – states that were punished by the DNC for moving their primaries forward on the calendar – a group headed by Hillary Clinton donors has begin running an ad calling for the full delegations from both states to be seated.

The New York Times reports that the group, Count The Votes Cast, formed a political action committee this week. Their 30-second spot, running in Washington, D.C. and on CNN, shows five founding members of the group talking straight into the camera.

“We are Democrats," they say in the spot. "We care about what happens in November. We urge the Democratic National Committee to seat all of the delegates from Florida and Michigan. There’s no question about the validity of votes, it’s whether they’ll count. After 2000, how can any Democrat support votes not being counted? Count all the votes. Not to do so will fracture the party and bring disaster in November.”

Watch it:

In an open letter to her Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton asks Barack Obama to help her "arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan."

After Tuesday's results in North Carolina and Indiana have led many pundits to declare the Democratic race all but over, the Clinton campaign has revved up its effort to get counted the disqualified results of the Michigan and Florida primaries.

Clinton writes that finding a resolution to the Michigan and Florida issue "could be the difference between winning and losing in November" and that "our commitment to the voters of these states must be clearly stated and your support for a fair and quick resolution must be clearly demonstrated."

Read the full letter below.

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Former President Jimmy Carter isn't on board with Hillary Clinton's argument that the disputed delegates from Florida and Michigan must be seated.

Carter told Jay Leno that the states "disqualified themselves" by moving their primary dates forward in violation of party rules, the Associated Press reports. He also said that if superdelegates were to give the nomination to the candidate who trails in the popular vote and delegate count – presumably Clinton – it "would be an almost unacceptable thing."

"It would be a catastrophe for the party," Carter said.

As we noted in a story yesterday, Clinton has a nearly impossible path to her party's nomination, barring some event that convinces a large majority of superdelegates that Obama should not be the Democratic nominee.

Carter himself is among the undecided superdelegates, though he has said this: "My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama. As a superdelegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for, but I leave you to make that guess."

In the latest bid to get Michigan's delegates seated at the Democratic convention, the AP reports that a top Clinton supporter has filed a challenge to the DNC that would send 28 unpledged superdelegates and 128 pledged delegates to the convention in Denver.

DNC member Joel Ferguson's plan calls for delegates to be allocated based on the results of the Michigan Democratic primary, which Clinton won, although neither candidate campaigned in the state.

The proposal calls for pledged Michigan delegates to get half a vote, while superdelegates would get a full vote at the convention.

Earlier this month, the executive committee of the Democratic Party of Michigan officially declared that the state wouldn't hold a do-over primary, deciding that the idea was just "not practical."

The Obama campaign is still calling for Michigan and Florida delegates to be divided evenly between the two candidates.

A federal judge today ruled that the Michigan law establishing the state's Jan. 15 presidential primary is unconstitutional. The reason? The law unfairly prevents minor parties from access to voter lists.

Because Michigan held its primary before Democratic National Committee rules permitted, the DNC stripped the state of its delegates to the party convention. The candidates boycotted the state, and Obama's name did not appear on the primary ballot.

The Hillary Clinton campaign seized on the decision to urge the Barack Obama campaign to support a new, party-run primary, the results of which would ostensibly replace the Jan. 15 primary results.

"Michigan voters must not be disenfranchised and the Obama campaign must not continue to block Michigan’s efforts to hold a new vote," Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said in the statement. "Rather it should move quickly to announce its support for a party run primary."

As CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder notes, the ruling does not mean that a new primary must be held – the judge left that question up to the parties themselves.

"...the ruling today means nothing more than a chance for her to make the case again for a re-vote," Ambinder writes.

The Clinton campaign has been pressing for a revote in the hope that delegates from Michigan (as well as Florida, a state similarly penalized) would help her close the delegate gap on Obama. In the latest CBS News delegate count, Obama leads Clinton 1618 to 1491.