Michigan Republicans sense a prime opportunity to take back their state governor's seat in 2010, after two terms with Democrat Jennifer M. Granholm. But the state party is far from unified over who their best candidate is to take on likely Democratic nominee John Cherry.

Two polls released last week -- one by non-partisan Inside Michigan Politics and by GOP firm Mitchell Research & Communications Inc. -- showed state Attorney General Mike Cox continues to lead a crowded Republican primary field, with U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra not far behind. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, technology entrepreneur Rick Snyder and state Sen. Tom George are also in the mix. None of the candidates topped 30 percent, however.

The poll for the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics found that a quarter of likely Republican voters were undecided and the Mitchell Research poll found nearly a third were unsure.

Cox and Bouchard lead Cherry in head-to-head match-ups, the two polls show.

Rick Snyder, a technology industry veteran from Ann Arbor, officially kicked off a dark-horse bid in the crowded 2010 Republican primary for governor, and set off on a four-day announcement tour across the state.

Snyder's bid to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm is his first campaign for public office, and he is framing himself as a political outsider.

A former president and chief operating officer of computer company Gateway Inc., Snyder contends his business and high-tech background makes him the candidate who is best able to re-energize the recession-plagued state's economy and repair the low opinion most Michigan voters currently have of their state government in Lansing.

Snyder sought to link himself to the legacy of inventor Thomas A. Edison during his announcement speech at Greenfield Village, part of the Henry Ford Museum in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. His event was held at Edison's Menlo Park, N.J., laboratory, relocated to the museum, which "embodies the inventive spirit we need to embrace," Snyder said in a statement.

State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith confirmed Friday that, as expected, she is joining the crowded 2010 race for governor of Michigan. She previously staged a short-lived bid for the same office in 2002.

Smith, whose state House district includes the eastern Michigan city of Ypsilanti, is the third Democrat to enter the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. She joins Lt. Gov. John Cherry and George Perles, a former head football coach at Michigan State University and now an elected trustee of that school who has publicly stated he plans to run.

Cherry is considered the early favorite for the Democratic nomination, having served alongside Granholm for both her two terms.

Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land announced Thursday that she is not going to enter the already crowded 2010 race for governor.

The unexpected move by Land -- who was widely assumed to be a candidate in the open-seat race -- came with another surprise, as she endorsed one of the declared Republican contenders: Michael J. Bouchard, the sheriff of populous Oakland County in suburban Detroit and a former state senator, who was the GOP's unsuccessful challenger to Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2006.

Bouchard on June 3 officially launched his campaign for the 2010 contest to choose the successor to two-term Democratic incumbent Jennifer M. Granholm, who is barred from running again under Michigan's term-limit law.

After losing the 2006 Senate race, Oakland County Sheriff and former state Sen. Michael J. Bouchard is taking another shot at statewide office. Bouchard, a Republican, will run for governor in 2010, he announced Wednesday with three stops across the state.

The sheriff put out a statement to the local press Tuesday night alerting them to the announcement and notified his police troops by e-mail this morning. In his roll-out, Bouchard emphasized the struggles facing families in Michigan due to the current state of the economy.

"We know our problems didn't just happen overnight. So there's no quick fixes or simple solutions," he said in a message on his campaign Web site. "It will take real leadership to dig us out of this mess and we can no longer allow Lansing thinking and the status quo to dictate our future decisions."