• Zachary Vito
• The Project White House Candidates (left to right): Charles Skelley, Pete "Simon" Bollander, Donald Benjamin, Michael Oatman, Al Perry, Kip Dean and Sarah Gonzales

We'd like to give a big thanks to the presidential candidates who came by our first Project White House Beer Summit yesterday, including Republicans Sarah Gonzales, Charles Skelley, Peter "Simon" Bollander, Al Perry, Donald Benjamin and Kip Dean and Green Michael Oatman. Despite their rivalries in seeking to win Arizona's Feb. 28 presidential primary, all of the candidates showed tremendous civility and respect toward one another and we hope to do another beer summit soon.

Another big thanks is due to our gracious host, Borderlands Brewing Co., and to the two food trucks that came by. MaFooCo served up some outstanding Korean tacos and Animal Farm's burger is as good as it gets, from the light and yummy bun to the fresh beef patty. We're eager to try more of their offerings.

We'll have a full report on the latest from Project White House in next week's print edition, but in the meantime, enjoy some photos from TW intern Zachary Vito below the cut.

Hopefully, you were already planning to attend the Project White House Beer Summit tomorrow night, but if not, we're now able to sweeten the deal a bit. Not only will you have the opportunity to meet actual presidential candidates and drink delicious Tucson beer, but you can also get some food from two of Tucson's food trucks. MaFooCo will be there serving their blend of Korean and Mexican food and Animal Farm will serve their dishes focused on locally raised meat and produce. Food, beer and citizen democracy...what more could you ask for? See you at Borderlands from 4 to 6 tomorrow.

Reacting to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's finger-wagging at President Obama at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson, one of six candidates for the Green Party presidential nomination on the February 28 Arizona presidential preference primary ballot, said, "If I'm president next year and Governor Brewer wags her finger at me, I'll freaking bite it off."

"That'll be the last finger she wags at anyone," added Grayson, attending the World Economic Forum and taking part in the Occupy demonstrations in Davos.

"Everyone here at Davos has been wonderful and we've been learning a great deal from others," said Grayson. "There's no finger-wagging here in Switzerland. We've had great conversation with people from all over the world."

As I mentioned a few days ago, the deadline to register to vote in for the Arizona Presidential Preference Primary is tonight at midnight. If you want to vote on February 28th for one of the Project White House candidates, you'll need to either be a Republican or Green by the end of the night.

Since we love democracy here (and we're generally sick of being broke), the Tucson Weekly staff is now largely comprised of Republicans and we're so excited:

Editor Jimmy Boegle:

Mari Herreras:

Me, finally embracing my Southern Baptist roots:

Not pictured, Irene Messina, who left her registration confirmation at home.

A helpful reminder: if you want to vote in the Arizona Presidential Preference Election set to be held on February 28, you'll need to be registered to vote aligned with either the Republican or Green parties by midnight on January 30. It's wildly simple to change your party affliation (if that's the sort of thing you're interested in) or to register for the first time. As long as you have an Arizona driver's license or state issued identification card that was issued after October 1st, 1996, you can complete the process entirely online. Democracy awaits!

As we report in this week's Skinny: We're excited to announce that we are having the first Project White House Beer Summit from 4 to 6 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 1, at downtown's newest brewery, Borderlands Brewing Company, 119 E. Toole Ave. Stop by to meet the candidates, and try some cold, freshly brewed craft beer!

We hope to bring you some big news soon about televised Project White House 2012 debates!

We challenged the Project White House candidates to respond to the results of the South Carolina primary. Their responses—a bit delayed by some other breaking news in these parts—follow.

Green Richard Grayson:

Pinal County Greens Co-Chair & Presidential Candidate Richard Grayson Hails South Carolina Primary Results as a Victory for the Afro-Punk Movement

Apache Junction, Ariz., Jan. 21 —

Green Party presidential candidate Richard Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens, tonight hailed the results of the South Carolina Republican primary as "a tremendous victory for the Afro-Punk movement."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xim3950tmrQ&feature=player_embedded

Grayson, watching the primary results on a 13" black-and-white cathode-ray television in a trailer park in nothern Pinal County, told his supporter that Newt Gingrich's resounding defeat of Mitt Romney can be attributed to South Carolinians' historical support of the Afro-Punk movement going back a dozen years.
"I would like to congratulate the Carolina Afro-Punks on their capturing the hearts and minds of Palmetto State Republicans," Grayson said. "As a queer Muslim Afro-Punk from the Barrio and with Janelle Monáe as my candidate for Vice President on the Green Party ticket, we are going to remake America for alternative urban kids everywhere!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wht0-k-V8PM&feature=player_embedded

Presidential candidate Richard Grayson, who is running as a Green in Arizona's Feb. 28 presidential primary, offers a new policy proposal: Deport all Republicans!

Here's Grayson's statement:

If by some fluke, I'm elected President, the first thing I will do is to take steps to make the United States great again by deporting all of those who've ruined our country, and the great state of Arizona, in recent years:

That's right, I plan to deport all Republicans.

I know what you're saying: "Richard, you're a liberal lawyer and a college professor who's taught constitutional history, not an ignorant asshole like Russell Pearce and the others who think that the Fourteenth Amendment's right to birthright citizenship can be taken away. How can you 'deport' American citizens? What country would you deport them to? And how could you do this without violating dozens of the Republicans' constitutional rights from due process to equal protection?"

I understand these concerns, of course. And though I would move as quickly as possible to deport all Republicans — it's not wise to keep vermin around your house any longer than necessary — I would not deport them to any foreign country.

Instead, I would launch a crash program, a kind of Manhattan Project, to get our most brilliant scientists to create a viable way to send people back into the past. Time travel will allow me to deport the Republicans to what is, indeed, American soil — but they'd be deported back to the eighteenth century!

And this, of course, would get around the problem of denying Republicans' constitutional rights. The GOP — soon to be G-O-N-E — would voluntarily self-deport to the 1700s.

Project White House contestant Al "Dick" Perry has outlasted Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Talking Points Memo reports:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday morning announced he is suspending his campaign for president, saying at a press conference in North Charleston, South Carolina, “the mission is greater than the man.” Perry endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, saying “Newt is not perfect, but who among us is.”

Perry continued on that theme, saying he was proud of the campaign that he ran, but as his time is up, the next step is for the Republican primary to find someone that can win in 2012.

“Our party, and the conservative philosophy transcends any one individual,” he said. “It’s a movement of ideas that are greater than any one of us, and will live long past any of us in our lives. As a former Air Force pilot, I don’t get confused. I know we can’t lose track of the ultimate objective in carrying out our mission, and that objective is not only to defeat President Obama, but to replace him with a conservative leader who will bring about real change.”

In other presidential contest news: It appears that inevitable nominee Mitt Romney didn't win Iowa after all.

Turns out Mitt Romney wasn’t the first GOP candidate in 35 years to take Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, the certification of Iowa caucus votes conducted by the state GOP shows Rick Santorum won - by 34 votes, but the party is officially calling it a “split decision.”

Presidential candidate Kip Dean lays out his presidential platform:

I. I will work to get the everyday citizen involved in the political process. I think that voting turn-out is at a critical low and the public is not involved in our political process. This has led to a stagnate government and an ownership of our great nation by corporations and Wall Street. Getting folks involved with the process is the major tenant of my platform.

2. I will ensure that a retirement with dignity is the right and expectation of every single American, starting with pension reform, expanding saving incentives and preventing the privatization of social security. This is not a government handout. Employees place money into the trust, so does the employer and so does the government. The only problem that social security has is that the trust has been robbed to pay off other debts. Americans want social security to stay the same. I realize that Americans rely on more than just Social Security for a secure and dignified retirement. I will continue to fight for genuine pension reform that protects employees’ financial security from future Enron-style abuse.