While the rest of the candidates bickered in Las Vegas, the former Utah governor declined to attend Tuesday night's debate

Thirty minutes before his seven GOP presidential rivals took the stage in Las Vegas on Tuesday for their latest debate, Jon Huntsman was in small-town New Hampshire, poking fun at the political "game show" that he alone was boycotting in a symbolic stand against Nevada's effort to eclipse the first-in-the-nation primary state.

"What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas," Huntsman said to laughs and cheers from an audience of about 100 at the Hopkinton Town Hall. "May I say that what happens in New Hampshire impacts the world!"

Huntsman, whose campaign is now single-focused on a New Hampshire win, announced last week that he would forgo his spot on the debate stage to protest Nevada's push to move up its primary. The campaign offered cider and cookies to attendees on their way in, and as a bonus to his stump speech, Huntsman took double his usual question quota. He talked up the Granite State's importance and lobbed a couple of zingers in the direction of the two current front-runners, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney.