By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff

The battle over Michigan’s presidential primary escalated Monday when the state’s attorney general’s office appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court to allow a Jan. 15 primary.

On Friday, a state appeals court blocked the law that set the early primary date. Given the foreshortened timeline — the contest would be held less than two months from today — the attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court to rule by the end of Wednesday.

“The clock is ticking and there are so many other deadlines that need to get met,” said Rusty Hills, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

If Friday’s decision is not overturned, it is possible the state will not sponsor a primary this year, leaving the state parties to allocate their delegates to the national conventions this summer.

Michigan’s legal woes have prevented New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner from picking a date for his state’s historically first-in-the-nation primary, and Gardner has not indicated what he will do.

Speaking Saturday at the Granite State Public Policy Forum, Gardner repeated his stance that the state’s primary would be no later than Jan. 8, and said he would prefer it was held on a Tuesday, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. Other than that, mum was the word.

“He’s very coy, he doesn’t say anything,” said Christopher Manuel, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, which held the event Saturday.

Manuel added that chatter within the state indicated Gardner is considering two possible dates for the primary: Dec. 11 and Jan. 8. Gardner’s ambiguity about the primary date is not unprecedented — he once waited until late December to make an announcement, Manuel said.

New Hampshire law stipulates that the state will hold its primary seven days or more ahead of any similar election, and gives the secretary of state discretion to determine whether other nominating contests qualify as “similar” to New Hampshire’s primary.

“I’m waiting for some resolution and I don’t know when that will be,” Gardner said, according to the Union Leader.