Updated

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is moving staff out of Nevada to focus on other early voting states, a reflection of the uncertainty about the prominence of the first Western contest.

Two Edwards campaign officials said Wednesday that the Nevada staffers were being relocated to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. They would not disclose how many staffers were being moved, but characterized it as a handful.

The Democratic National Committee gave Nevada a new early role in the presidential nominating process for next year, allowing it to schedule its caucus on Jan. 19, between Iowa and the New Hampshire primary. But New Hampshire has said it may go earlier than the Jan. 22 date set by the DNC, possibly moving Nevada back in the voting order.

Edwards has raised $23 million, less than half of the more than $50 million that rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have brought in. That leaves him fewer resources to spread across multiple states. He has declined to staff up in states that come on the Feb. 5 super Tuesday primary day, banking that victories in the early states will create the momentum needed to win contests that come later.

The campaign advisers wouldn't say how many staff would be left, but said Nevada state director Bill Hyers will keep running the Edwards campaign in the state.