Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair and candidate for President in the February 28 Arizona Green Party presidential preference primary, today announced support for Bayer aspirin on demand for all women, Scottsdale millionaires, and members of the Roman Catholic clergy.

"As a longtime supporter of Planned Parenthood and women's reproductive rights, I believe that those who are trying to curtail access to contraceptives are causing big headaches for American society," said Grayson. "We need fast relief from these knee-o-conservatives."

A new American Research Group poll has Santorum surging in Arizona, although Romney still leads the GOP pack:

Mitt Romney leads in the Arizona Republican presidential primary with 38%. Romney is followed by Rick Santorum with 31%, Newt Gingrich with 15%, and Ron Paul with 11%.

In a similar survey conducted January 25-26, 2012, Romney was tied with Gingrich at 32% each, followed by Paul with 12% and Santorum with 10%. Santorum has increased support among men from 9% in the January survey to 37% in the latest survey and Santorum has increased support among women from 11% in the January survey to 24% in the latest survey.

Romney leads Santorum 37% to 32% among likely Republican primary voters saying they will definitely or probably vote in the February 28 primary. Romney leads Gingrich 61% to 17% among the 4% of Republican primary voters saying they have already voted.

Romney leads with 41% among likely Republican primary voters saying they are supporters of the Tea Party, followed by Santorum with 34%, Gingrich with 10%, and Paul with 7%. Among likely primary voters saying they are not supporters of the Tea Party or are undecided about the Tea Party, Romney leads with 35%, followed by Santorum with 28%, Gingrich with 20%, and Paul with 15%.

Santorum leads Romney 37% to 30% among men, followed by Gingrich with 17% and Paul with 13%. Romney leads Santorum 47% to 24% among women, followed by Gingrich with 13% and Paul with 9%.

And we keep hearing that it's the Project White House 2012 candidates who aren't serious...

From Talking Points Memo:

This whole contraception debate is just so new-fangled, says billionaire investor and mega-funder to the super PAC supporting former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) for President, Foster Friess.

In a simpler time, there were other ways to deal with female sexual desire. “Back in my day, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly,” he said Thursday on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, setting the host back for moment.

The general conversation was about Santorum’s past statements about contraception, who once said that it was “harmful to women.”

Local angle: Foster Friess, a part-time Scottsdale resident, was in a Phoenix TV studio. More AZ pride!

Jim Terr, Republican candidate for president, takes on his high profile opponents while wearing a hat.

As part of our extensive Arizona Presidential Preference Primary coverage, we've offered Republican and Green candidates on the ballot the opportunity to speak directly to the voter, unedited. Today, Republican Charles Skelley discusses his proposal for a campaign excise fee, partially in the third person:

THE US NEEDS AN "EXCISE" FEE ON POLITICAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE PRIMARY SEASON — TO FUND A NON-PARTISAN POLITICAL COLLEGE

Tucson AZ, Republican Presidential candidate Charles Skelley (co-founder of Worlds Masterminds) says it is not "fair" that raising and spending huge sums of money at a frenzied pace produces the winner in far too many US Presidential Primary elections. Typically less than 0.0001% of US citizens receive and spend these frenzied Presidential political campaign contributions. Most citizens understand that the US campaign financing system is broken and needs to be reformed.

We love democracy, so we're offering Arizona Presidential Primary candidates the opportunity to share their views here on The Range. Today, we're sharing the unedited perspective of Simon Bollander, Republican candidate for President.

Simon Bollander the adminstrator of Worlds Masterminds is extremely upset in the way our Country is managed. You will not believe this I Love the law proffession & if I had a second life I would be an attorney. Law is fun & is the foundation of our great country. But when it comes to our country being violated by our Congress that is of 70 percent of law degrees. Im very angry.

In the wake of Rick Santorum's three-state sweep earlier this week, Sen. Jon Kyl tells Politico that “there is not exactly Romney-mania right now”:

Kyl, who like DeMint has not endorsed in the 2012 race, launched into a sharp critique Wednesday on the matter, saying Romney’s support for indexing the minimum wage to inflation is something that “every conservative knows [is] a bad idea.”

And that’s the crux of the concern over Romney — that he’s simply not conservative by instinct and therefore has inherent difficulties with the right.

“People instinctively can sense how fervently you believe in things by the way you talk about them, by what you choose to talk about,” Kyl said. “And I think to some extent, Mitt can do a little better job to responding to that political fact. Second, he has stepped on his message so many times.”

Kyl added: “Every time he defends his health care action in Massachusetts and every time he says something like [indexing minimum wage], conservatives wonder whether he has the instincts to usually take the conservative position on issues. You don’t just want a transactional president, you want one with a very fixed view of what’s right or wrong, what the good solutions to problems are — and while you always have to end up making accommodations to get things done in politics, you at least instinctively know what direction you ought to be headed in. I think conservatives need to be persuaded that Mitt has a pretty firm fix on where the conservative lodestar is.”

As part of our series "Let's run YouTube video on the blog featuring the Project White House candidates", here's a clip from Kip Dean, who explains why he's running for president, filmed at the Borderland Brewing/Project White House beer summit.

Sarah Gonzales, your only female option on the Arizona Presidential Preference Primary Republican ballot, has an ad online for her candidacy, and she smartly incorporates buzzy elements people might care about, including the word "occupy", a hashtag reference, immigration, and a beer.

Bad news for Project White House candidates: A new Rasmussen poll shows Mitt Romney is running away with the GOP primary here:

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has a big lead over his rivals in the first Rasmussen Reports survey of the Republican primary race in Arizona. The state's Republicans vote on February 28. A new telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Arizona shows Romney with 48% support, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich comes in a distant second with 24%. Thirteen percent (13%) prefer former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and six percent (6%) support Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided.