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Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney inched into a virtual dead heat with rival John McCain in Michigan as the state begins voting in the presidential nominating contest. According to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released Tuesday McCain, the Arizona senator, held a statistically insignificant 1-point edge over Romney, 27 percent to 26 percent, well within the margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was in third place at 15 percent. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, gained 2 points overnight and McCain held steady in the tracking poll. The Republican primary in Michigan is the latest fight in the state-by-state process to choose candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush. Romney, who was raised in Michigan, needs a breakthrough win in the state to keep his White House hopes alive after second-place finishes in earlier contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. A McCain win following last week's New Hampshire victory would thrust him into the Republican front-runner's role heading into the next contests in South Carolina and Florida. All candidates campaigned hard across Michigan, where the slumping auto industry and the 7.4 percent unemployment rate is the highest of any U.S. state, put economic issues at the top of the agenda. Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters