HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. - The Granite State may be just a slight clip behind Iowa in launching momentum in the GOP presidential primary race, which is picking up this week, but it is poised to hold on to its traditions in the ever-evolving process.

Former Gov. John Sununu, who just finished a stint chairing the state party, explained that New Hampshire likely has hosted more visits by potential GOP 2012 presidential contenders than Iowa has, but the public just hasn't been aware of some of those events.

Earlier this week, the Des Moines Register heralded a flurry of activity in Iowa that appeared to amount to the unofficial launch of the primary race, even though there are still no major announced candidates yet for the GOP. For activists in Iowa, the development has been a welcome one in what has been a delayed start to the race.

"I think Iowa is making more of a commercial operation of their caucus. They're holding events that they kind of trap the candidates into having to be a part of - and as part of their 'let's build up the politics in Iowa' game," Sununu said in a wide-ranging interview. "People have been up here; we just don't have those commercial events." He added, "I bet in total number of visits, we've had more total number of visits."

Sununu continued that many of the well-known likely candidates drop in for traditional small coffee sessions and community meetings that never make it into print.

"I think you have more of a low-key, traditional structure in New Hampshire, things that have always been going on, where Iowa has been adding special events in recent years that create an environment of obligation that candidates feel they have to respond to," he said. One of those is this Monday's Faith and Freedom Coalition forum in Des Moines, which several likely candidates plan to attend.

But as Sununu reminded, a perfect attendance record at all of those events doesn't guarantee a victory.

"Iowa is a manufactured process," he said. "Iowa is a caucus. I win the caucus if I have more buses than the other guy. I load up my buses, I make sure there's enough food so we can keep them at the caucus until the voting starts, and that's it."

He went on, "That's why, quite often, Iowa has surprises. What you really should be covering is the logistics in Iowa. Iowa is a logistically driven thing, and so you ought to just cut a contract with the bus company and see who's hiring."

Despite Sununu's bravado about the Granite State's role in the process, the former White House chief of staff said he would advise any candidate not to skip any of the early states.

"All the serious candidates will compete in both, I think - less of a fracture than last time," he said, because, "most of the serious candidates this time have been around once, and I think they're smart enough to know that the worst thing you can do is write one state off or another state off.

"Call it the Rudy Giuliani syndrome. Rudy's idea of writing off too many states had him out of the game quickly."

And in Sununu's mind, it's getting to be about that time when candidates have to start making plays in his state.

At this point, the veteran Republican official believes the field is going to be quite a bit smaller and less wide-open than the chattering class is suggesting. In fact, he predicted there may be only three real candidates.

Already, one potential candidate who could have made his mark in the Granite State has already ruled himself out: South Dakota Sen. John Thune.

"I thought Thune could have been a credible candidate in New Hampshire," Sununu said. "But I really thought two months ago it was almost too late for him because he had virtually never been in the state. But he hadn't done enough even two months ago to allow himself the luxury of running a credible race," he said.

The candidates who have so far shown an interest in competing in New Hampshire include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Texas Rep. Ron Paul has an event in the state later this month. U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels have been mentioned as possible contenders.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Wednesday defended his Republican colleague, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and suggested that President Obama had been hypocritical in boasting about freezing pay for federal employees while at the same time expressing support for the collective bargaining rights of public workers in Wisconsin.

"The fact of the matter is the president told us at the White House that he had unilaterally frozen spending for federal employees," Barbour told reporters in Washington after speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Federal employees don't have collective bargaining rights. The president can unilaterally freeze their pay, so the idea you guys have given the country is just like there's some constitutional right to collective bargaining."

Barbour said that about half of U.S. states, including Mississippi, either offered no collective bargaining rights or limited them.

The likely 2012 presidential candidate added that Walker and Wisconsin state Republicans were merely trying to pass a law that already exists in many other states.

"So do I think he's overreached? No, I think he's being realistic," Barbour said. "Having a one-year agreement about wages and benefits doesn't really help with the problem. You're not going to get rid of a $3.6 billion budget problem in a state the size of Wisconsin by having one year of savings."

During his Chamber of Commerce speech, Barbour touted his record on bringing job growth to Mississippi since he took office in 2004.

Barbour focused his remarks on his efforts to attract high-end manufacturing to his state and offer additional employment training without raising taxes.

"If you want to improve your revenue, the best way is to have more taxpayers with more taxable income," he said.

Barbour has said that he is eyeing April as the month when he will make his decision on whether to run for president.

On former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's impending entrance into the race, Barbour had nothing but praise for his potential rival for the Republican nomination.

"I'm crazy about Newt," he said. "We've been friends for 30 years."

Asked about the uprisings in Libya and the surrounding region, Barbour refused to follow the lead of other potential GOP contenders in criticizing the Obama administration's response to the events.

Barbour noted that he was in Israel during the initial phases of the revolt in Egypt.

"I said then it's not fair for us to criticize because, A, politics should stop at the water's edge, but also, it's very clear the Israeli intelligence did not see this coming, so how can you criticize the CIA?" he said. "It's also equally clear Egyptian intelligence didn't see it coming either. So I'm not going to be critical of American intelligence, and I don't think others should be either."

A statement released by Newt Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler late Tuesday night raised more questions than it answered when it denied widespread reports that the former House speaker would announce the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on Thursday in Georgia.

Still, even if there is no announcement Thursday, the former House speaker appears poised to become the first major Republican candidate to make a formal move into the 2012 race.

His announcement, if and when it comes, will mark the end of the preliminary stage of the 2012 cycle, which has seen potential candidates traveling to early voting states and eyeing each other cautiously, while not yet officially launching their campaigns.

Several other serious contenders for the Republican nomination still appear to be weeks, if not months, away from making their own decisions. The wide open nature of the 2012 race has led many candidates to believe that there is little to be gained from opening themselves up to attacks from their rivals and burning through precious financial resources almost a year before the first votes are cast.

But Gingrich's early entry into the race would carry with it some clear and potentially significant benefits for the former Georgia congressman, who is widely considered one of the GOP's intellectual heavyweights.

Tim Albrecht, the communications director for Republican Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, suggested that Gingrich would be wise to jump in now and seize the political treasures that might be gained from being the most aggressive contender.

"Being the first candidate to announce carries with it a great opportunity to generate a lot of buzz with your entrance," Albrecht said. "It effectively means the staring match is over, and somebody blinked."

Now that a major candidate appears ready to enter the race and begin to more actively seek out the services of aides and activists in Iowa, Albrecht said that his would-be rivals might not want to cede additional ground.

This dynamic could create a domino effect, in which other contenders formally enter the race more quickly than they might have wanted.

"This is still Iowa, and while some could be tempted to rely on media stories and paid advertising, someone like Newt understands grassroots politics and will work very actively to recruit precinct captains beginning on day one," Albrecht said.

Widely expected to be a brief stepping stone on the way to the launch of an official campaign, Gingrich aides would not yet confirm the exploratory committee's launch date, which previous reports have indicated is imminent.

A Gingrich spokesperson did confirm that the former speaker would on Thursday be in Georgia - where he served in Congress for 20 years - to meet with the state's Republican governor, Nathan Deal. Gingrich and Deal are also set to hold an afternoon press conference.

If Gingrich's announcement does still come sometime within the next few days, recent precedent from the earliest entrants to the last presidential campaign may be less than encouraging for the former speaker.

When former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack made his White House campaign official in November of 2006, he became the first serious Democratic candidate to throw his hat in the ring. Less than three months later, however, Vilsack also became the first contender to leave the race, citing a lack of adequate fundraising capability.

On the Republican side, then Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback became the first major GOP candidate to officially announce his run in December of 2006. But Brownback lost steam after a disappointing third-place finish in the Ames Straw Poll in August of 2007 and dropped out less than three months later.

Robert Haus, an Iowa Republican consultant currently unaligned with a prospective candidate, said that Gingrich differs from previous first entrants like Vilsack and Brownback because the former speaker is a national figure and already has in place a vibrant fundraising operation.

"I think there are clear advantages to being first," Haus said. "The great thing about caucuses is that they're pure numbers games. You've got to identify your supporters and turn them out, so the sooner you start, that gives you more time to do it."

Gingrich is set to travel to the first-in-the-nation caucus state on Monday where he will speak at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, which is slated to be the first Iowa event of the cycle featuring multiple likely presidential candidates.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain - a longshot candidate who was the first to form an exploratory committee - will also speak at the event.

But in light of his impending announcement, Gingrich appears poised to generate the lion's share of media attention at the forum - another reason why his entrance into the race could end up paying some early dividends - though the confusion that was apparently perpetuated within his political team on Tuesday could raise concern about his operation's organization.

If Gingrich does indeed take the plunge, his every utterance will be parsed even more extensively than it was before.

And as someone who has a reputation for generating controversy though off-the-cuff comments, the former speaker will have to be more careful than ever in avoiding self-inflicted wounds as he transitions from the contemplative stage to an active campaign.

On the heels of his speech at the Tea Party Patriots' policy summit in Phoenix over the weekend, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has released a new video designed to highlight his solidarity with the tea party movement's cause.

Titled, "Tea Party: A New Birth Of Freedom," the online video opens with shots of rally-goers in Washington, D.C., waving "Don't Tread On Me" flags as Pawlenty describes the grassroots movement as a "great addition to the conservative coalition and the coalition for change in this country."

The theatrical 85-second video posted on Pawlenty's YouTube page was produced and edited in a similar fashion to two other online videos that the likely GOP presidential candidate has previously rolled out, which touted his broad vision for the country and support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's union standoff respectively.

"We, the people of the United States, will rise up again," Pawlenty says in a highlight of his Phoenix speech, which is featured in the new video. "We will take back our government. This is our country. Our Founding Fathers created it, Americans embraced it, Ronald Reagan personified it, and Lincoln stood courageously to protect it."

The latest video appeared designed primarily to reintroduce Pawlenty to tea party voters, who may not be as familiar with the former Minnesota governor's record and movement conservative bona fides as they are with some of the other prospective candidates' grassroots credentials.

But the video is also clearly part of a broader effort to rejigger Pawlenty's image. Often described as an easygoing, mild-mannered Midwestern politician, Pawlenty has been working to exhibit a more fiery side as he looks to feed off the passion of the tea party movement in advance of his likely announcement of a presidential run.

"Now and as ever, this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom," Pawlenty shouts in the video, his voice growing hoarse. "Our government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth, and America will remain the greatest country the world has ever known."