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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has hired on some heavy hitters for his North Carolina operation. From a news release:

"Today Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich announced the Newt 2012 leadership team in North Carolina. Leading Gingrich's efforts in the Tar Heel state are former NC GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer, Kieran Shanahan, and Karen Rotterman."

For those who don't know them:

• Fetzer will be state chairman. He is a former Republican Party Chairman and one of the better communicators the GOP had in that job during the past decade.
• Shanahan will be finance chairman. He's a Raleigh-based lawyer and former city council member with connections to deep pockets in the state.
• Rotterman will head the "political and fundraising" effort, according to the release. She has been a consultant for other Republican presidential candidates, including George W. Bush, and has worked on behalf of other high profile candidates.

Any one of the three would qualify as a "wartime consigliere," and having all three is a sign that Gingrich means business here.

More intriguing than the hires, though, was this statement in the news release:

“North Carolina will be a key state in the Republican primary process and a crucial battleground state in the fall of 2012," said Gingrich. "The members of our North Carolina team have been tremendous conservative leaders in their state."

"A key state in the Republican primary process?"

For that to be true, the Republican primary will have to be unsettled as late as May. Typically, a strong candidate will all-but-officially wrap up a nomination by the end of March. North Carolina's May primary date is so late in the season that the Tar Heel State is typically an afterthought to an already done deal.

However, we do have recent experience with a presidential primary rolling through the barbecue belt.

In 2008, it was the Democrats who unexpectedly brought the presidential nominating show to North Carolina, with U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battling it out. The Republicans, by that point, had already picked Arizona Sen. John McCain as their nominee.

Gingrich's main rival, former Massachusetts' Gov. Mitt Romney has also said he expected it to be a longer-than-usual campaign.

Now, political predictions are rarely worth the paper they're printed on more than a month out. But with both leading contenders forecasting a protracted campaign, North Carolina could be treated to another more-interesting-than-usual primary season.

As a side note: A protracted Republican primary season would probably be good news for those backing an amendment to the state constitution to ban same sex marriage. Higher turnout out during the Republican primary would boost that amendment's chances.That's especially true since Democrats, who are more likely to oppose the amendment, will have few hotly contested races at the top of the ballot where incumbents Obama and Gov. Bev Perdue expect little credible opposition.