DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Vilsack's home-field advantage isn't enough to force rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination to cede him the game -- far from it.

Not only won't Vilsack get a pass in Iowa's 2008 Democratic caucuses, but party leaders are bending over backward to keep the start-off of the contest evenhanded, key activists and strategists said.

"The game is on and I think people such as John Edwards, Evan Bayh and others have spent enough time here and think they can run a successful campaign, even with a former Iowa governor running against them," said Iowa Democratic Chairman Rob Tully

It will not, they say, be another 1992, the year Tom Harkin -- the Hawkeye State's popular U.S. senator -- ran for president. Harkin's Democratic rivals skipped the Iowa caucuses, arguing that it wasn't possible to compete with him on his home turf.