Both candidates who hope to become Michigan's next governor made their final appearances in Washtenaw County tonight on the eve of the election, each issuing a last call to supporters to get out the vote on Tuesday.

Republican businessman Rick Snyder rallied supporters outside the Ann Arbor Fix Michigan Center on South State Street, while Virg Bernero, the Democratic mayor of Lansing, gave a pep talk to a small crowd gathered at a Democratic Party campaign office in downtown Ypsilanti.

"We're fighting for Main Street," Bernero said, surrounded by cheering supporters. "We believe that we need a government and an economy that works for everybody, not just the people on top. This is a key difference between the two (campaigns)."

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Virg Bernero, center, is joined by running mate Brenda Lawrence and attorney general candidate David Leyton at a Democratic Party campaign rally in Ypsilanti tonight.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Snyder, holding the final rally of his campaign, told supporters Tuesday is just the beginning. “This is not just an election,” he said. “This is something much bigger than that. This is about a fundamental effort to reinvent our state. And the hardest work is going to start in January and go on into the foreseeable future.”

In the final hours of his campaign, Bernero continued to characterize Snyder as an out-of-touch millionaire. He expressed a strong dislike for the "trickle down" economic policies of his opponent.

"This is still an election about two different visions," he said. "There are still those that believe if you take care of the people at the top — the folks that got the advantages — that eventually some of the good will trickle down. And if you keep heaping more on the people on top, some of that will trickle down. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being trickled on."

With that, the crowd laughed and began chanting in unison, "No more trickle! No more trickle!"

Snyder briefly recited his general campaign platform, calling for the Michigan Business Tax to be replaced with a 6 percent corporate income tax and stressing the importance of preserving Michigan’s natural resources and revitalizing its distressed urban cities. But he spent a large portion of his rally stressing that partisanship and cultural divides must be eliminated. “We carry far too many labels in our lives, of party, of ideology. There’s only one label that really matters if we’re to be a great state again, and we will be a great state again. And that label is ‘Michigander,’” Snyder said. He added: “We don’t need more fighters in Michigan. We need to solve problems. And we need to do it as a team.”

Bernero talked about his efforts fighting for federal bridge loans for the U.S. auto industry, a quest joined by his running mate, Brenda Lawrence.

"It was my great privilege to fight for the auto industry and stand up for Michigan and working people," Bernero said. "When the national media and Wall Street was throwing us under the bus, I was only too happy to do it. And you know what? We got results."

He also touted General Motors' recently announced plans to invest $190 million in its Lansing Grand River assembly plant, bringing 600 new jobs to his city. Bernero said his policies have created more than 6,000 jobs during his five years as mayor.

"We have the fastest growing economy in Michigan in Lansing, the seventh fastest in the nation," he said. "I think we've got to continue, we've got to build upon that. I believe we can, but I know and I believe we've got to have a governor who's going to work with the president and not against him. My opponent has already said that he agrees with Mike Cox, that he wants to push that lawsuit to try to stop the national health care reform."

Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Snyder rallies supporters outside an office complex on South State Street tonight.

Nathan Bomey | AnnArbor.com

Bernero appeared alongside Democratic attorney general candidate David Leyton, Democratic Supreme Court Justice Alton Thomas Davis and Lawrence, who currently serves as Southfield's mayor.

Republican attorney general nominee Bill Schuette and Republican secretary of state nominee Ruth Johnson rallied supporters at Snyder's event. A group of protestors opposing Schuette stood on a nearby sidewalk on South State Street and repeatedly interrupted the rally, yelling “fight crime, not sick people,” and “no Schuette on duty.” Snyder didn’t specifically address the protestors but repeated his frequent calls for Michigan to stop fighting. “We have a broken culture in our state, we’ve been beaten up for so many years, we’ve become too negative,” he said. “We’ve got our heads down too much, and we’ve also become too divisive. We’ve got too caught up in partisanship, geography, racial and ethnic issues where people believe they won just because someone else has lost. Every time that shows up — every single instance — every Michigander loses. It is time for a new culture in our state.”

Bernero acknowledged in an interview after his rally that he's nervous headed into Tuesday's election. He still trails Snyder by close to 20 points, according to some polls.

"Of course, I'm nervous," Bernero said. "But the way you solve that is you burn off the nervous energy and just keep making calls and knocking on doors, so I feel good.

"With energy like this, how could we lose?" Bernero said.

Snyder said he's feeling the energy, too.

"We’re going to go out, and we will create more and better jobs, we will create a place for our young people and we will be a great state again," he said. "I am absolutely fired up."

In Washtenaw County, Snyder believes he can compete for votes, despite a strong base of Democrats in the city of Ann Arbor.

“If you look at the support we have in this community, it’s about as broad a political spectrum as you can find anywhere in the country, and I’m proud of that,” he said. “I think we’ll do very well in Washtenaw County. I’ll go out on a limb with that.”

AnnArbor.com reporter Nathan Bomey contributed to this story. Reach him at 734-623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.