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Al "Dick" Perry has hit the big time: A mention on the Rachel Maddow show.

Meanwhile, Dustin Volz of Cronkite News reports:

There is at least one new Republican voter in the state. Al Perry said he had to switch party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in order to run, noting that the last Republican president he identified with was Abraham Lincoln.

Perry, whose middle name is Richard, said he thought about registering as Rick Perry, but didn’t want the hassle he might get from the other Rick Perry on the ballot — the governor of Texas. So he went with “Al ‘Dick’ Perry.”

The Tucson Perry’s platform calls for creating a fairer tax rate for the middle class and reforming the nation’s “legalized bribery” system of campaign contributions and lobbying.

Even though he’s in the race, Al Perry is disappointed that Huntsman is not: “The funny thing about Huntsman is … I’d probably vote for him. He’s the only guy who said anything that made any sense.”

Volz also reports on Project White House 2012:

“I think it’s wonderful that the state of Arizona offers this chance for the people,” said Jim Nintzel, senior writer for Tucson Weekly. “Arizona is all about freedom.”

Nintzel’s effort to get ordinary people on the ballot — including Al Perry, among others — began in 2008 when he learned a candidate only had to fill out a two—page form and have a notarized signature to be listed for Arizona’s presidential primary.

He continued Project White House this year, offering the paper’s endorsement to the Republican and Green Party candidates who perform best in a series of challenges.

23 Candidates on Arizona's Primary Ballot: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Presidential candidate Al "Dick" Perry has made quite a splash in the news after yesterday's drawing to determine the ballot order for candidates in Arizona's Feb. 28 presidential primary. He made it onto Fox News in Phoenix yesterday and was mentioned all over the web, including a story in Talking Points Memo.

While Al "Dick" Perry has been playing down the likelihood that he'll win Arizona, we at The Range don't think his chances are any worse than Rick Perry's. And with all these media appearances, he's racking up points in our Project White House 2012 competition.

We'll have more on Al "Dick" Perry—as well as the other candidates in Project White House 2012—in the coming days.

The list of candidates for Arizona’s Feb. 28 presidential primary is complete—and Project White House 2012, the Weekly’s Reality Journalism competition, is underway!

A total of 23 Republicans are on the ballot, which is one less than the 24 Republicans who were on the ballot in 2008.

We would have gotten to 24 candidates this year, if former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman hadn’t messed up his paperwork. It really says something about the importance of organization when local guitar legend Al “Dick” Perry can get on the GOP primary ballot, but Huntsman screws it up.

Speaking of Al Perry: He landed the No. 4 spot on the Arizona GOP presidential ballot at a random drawing of names for ballot order at the Arizona Secretary of State’s office earlier this week. That puts him well ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is at the No. 17 spot.

“I hope that doesn’t confuse our voters,” said Secretary of State Ken Bennett. “I think that people who support Rick Perry will vote for Rick Perry and hopefully they’ll notice the distinction between Rick Perry and Al ‘Dick’ Perry.”

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is chairing Rick Perry’s campaign in Arizona, did not appear too happy about his candidate sharing a name with another contender for the White House.

“Who is that?” Arpaio said when The Range asked him about Al “Dick” Perry. “I don’t know who that is. I know there’s only one of me.”

To answer Arpaio’s question: Al “Dick Perry” is one of the 10 GOP candidates who are participating in Project White House, which will present a variety of challenges to the candidates between now and Election Day. The candidate who does the best job will win the Tucson Weekly’s endorsement for the GOP race.

By luck of the draw, Project White House candidates snagged the top five spots on the GOP ballot this year.

The Arizona Democratic Party opted out of having a primary on Feb. 28, preferring to do a caucus later in the year. That prevents a Project White House candidate from potentially embarrassing President Barack Obama.

Might Jimmy McMillan run for president in Arizona? We'll find out Monday!

It's the same old story: Forces in the state of Arizona are out to squash the voice of the little guy. The Arizona Secretary of State is telling potential candidates for Project White House 2012 that they are ineligible to run for president simply because they don't belong to the political party whose nomination they are seeking.

Why do they all hate Democracy so much? What do they fear?

But in 2012, courageous voices like his are being silenced because powerful people have declared that unless you're a Republican, you won't be able to seek the Republican nomination. Unless you're a Green, you won't be able to seek the Green nomination. And, of course, the Democrats dropped out from the primary altogether. Are they afraid that someone in Arizona could upstage Barack Obama?

We cannot answer these questions (and our consultation with the Project White House legal team suggests we have little recourse in the courts), but we can tell you that many of our candidates—people like Al Perry and Paul Benjamin—have taken the step of re-registering as Republicans so that they might run in Project White House.

We just hope this doesn't create a barrier that prevents Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party from qualifying for the ballot. Mr. McMillan called Project White House yesterday to tell us he planned to run here in Arizona and we warned him that he'd have to become a Republican to do it. He said that he would make the switch—that's how much he loves this country.

And you, citizen, can do the same thing, but time runs short. You only have until 5 p.m. Monday to get your application in to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. You can file it in Phoenix or here in Tucson, at the local branch of the Secretary of State's Office at 400 W Congress St, suite 504.

So do your part. Join a party and then join the party that is Project White House. Help fix this great nation today! You'll find the details here.

Sen. John McCain endorsed Mitt Romney in New Hampshire yesterday, leading the Democratic National Committee to assemble this video of McCain openly mocking Romney for his flip-flopping.

So is McCain flip-flopping on his flip-flop charges? This is getting really meta.

In the wake of the Iowa caucuses, Michele Bachmann announced today that she is no longer a presidential candidate. We'd imagine that Rick Perry will be the next to drop out, although he's making noises about staying in on Twitter today.

It's interesting (to us at least) that Bachmann never filed to run in Arizona. Nor has Perry or Newt Gingrich. We don't know if that means they're just not very serious about this presidential campaign thing, or if they don't have anyone in the state to warn them that they only have until Monday to get their paperwork in.

It appears to us that Mitt Romney now has the entire thing wrapped up, even though only about one-fourth of the Republican voters really want him as their nominee. The opposition is just too scattered (or scattered-brained, in the case of Perry.)

Gingrich had an interesting point about Romney's low level of support in the GOP on Laura Ingraham's radio show:

Rick (Santorum) and I have a 20-year friendship, we are both rebels, we both came into this business as reformers, we both dislike deeply the degree to which the establishment sells out the American people. We both think Washington has to be changed in very fundamental ways, and we have lots of things that fit together. And the thing that's interesting is if you take the votes, you add to that Perry and Bachmann, you begin to see the size of the conservative vote compared to Romney...if you take, you know, Santorum and Perry and Bachmann and Gingrich you get some sense of what a small minority Romney really represents.

There is one chance that Romney could be in trouble: If a fresh face rises here in Arizona as part of Project White House. You still have time to get your application to run for president here, but you have to get your application in to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office by 5 p.m. Monday.

Details on how you can claim your spot on the ballot—and in history—here!

Dave Maass, the Project White House 2012 campaign coordinator for the great state of California, had a recruitment party for Project White House 2012 this week in San Diego. He found four new candidates, including Tommy Hough, an environmental activist in those parts who has a number of campaign promises we can get behind, including a proposal to have Gov. Jan Brewer declared an illegal immigrant.

Maass has details at his blog:

Lorena Gonzalez, CEO of the local labor umbrella group, decided not to fill out paperwork last night to run for president in Arizona after all—but four other locals did, including CityBeat editor David Rolland.

Here's the back story: To get on the Arizona presidential primary ballot, all a qualified candidate's got to do is send in a notarized, two-page nomination form. CityBeat made it even easier by recruiting notary public Sara Honadle from Coast Law Group to certify the documents for free at El Take It Easy in North Park.

El Take It Easy owner Jay Porter submitted his name for the ballot, telling CityBeat he'll make the gimlet the official White House cocktail. Rolland and CityBeat advertising account executive Jason Noble also filled out the paperwork.

Details on how you can seek the presidency—and be part of Project White House—here.

Tucson rock ’n’ roll legend Al Perry is throwing his hat into the presidential race.

“Somebody has to run,” says Perry who is well known to area music fans as the singer-songwriter who has penned songs such as “Loserville” and “Little By Little.”

“I don’t agree with any of the candidates, at all, whatsoever,” said Perry over a late breakfast at Mother Hubbard's diner on Monday. “I don’t agree with them on even one thing, hardly—Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, whatever. And most of this stuff isn’t that hard to figure out. I try to use logic, I try to use common sense, I try to use human decency when I make a decision.”

Perry will like use some variant of his full name, Al Richard Perry, but he says he’s not, to the best of his knowledge, related to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose name will also appear on the Arizona presidential primary ballot unless the stumbling GOP candidate drops out of the race before then.

Perry is just one of the freedom-loving Americans to show an interest in Project White House 2012, the Tucson Weekly’s Reality Journalism competition that is open to any candidate on the Arizona's Feb. 28 presidential primary ballot.

Today marks the first day that the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office is accepting nomination forms for the primary ballot. To qualify for the Arizona ballot, all that’s needed is a notarized, two-page form.

For details on how you can participate in Project White House 2012, click here.

Here's the nomination form you need to fill out: Nomination_Paper_PPE.pdf

The Arizona Democratic Party bowed out of Arizona presidential primary earlier this week.

Jennifer Johnson, the spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party, told The Range that the party will instead have a caucus in the congressional districts later this year.

“That will save the taxpayers some money,” Johnson said.

But we couldn’t help but wonder if the Democratic Party’s decision had anything to do with Project White House 2012, the Weekly’s reality-journalism competition that is helping average citizens get their names on Feb. 28 presidential primary ballot. (You'll find details on how you can run for president here.)

After all, it would be a tremendous blow to President Barack Obama if a dark horse candidate on the Arizona primary ballot were to defeat him.

Johnson denied yesterday that the Democrats cancelled the primary because they were afraid that a Project White House 2012 candidate might have defeated Barack Obama.

“I’m guessing that was not the driving decision,” said Johnson, who claimed to be unaware of Project White House 2012.

Johnson also brushed aside suggestions that the Arizona Democratic Party was seeking to block the ability of Americans to fulfill their childhood dreams of seeking the White House.

“We’re not quashing anyone’s dreams,” Johnson said. “If they really want to run, I’m sure there’s a technical process they can go through if they want to participate in the caucus process.”

Whatever the reasoning, the decision to not have a Democratic primary has big implications for Project White House 2012. Now, any candidate who wants to be on the February primary ballot—and join our reality journalism competition to win the Tucson Weekly endorsement—will have to run as a Republican.

BTW, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office has finalized the nomination form, so if you’re ready to launch your campaign, you can download it right here: Nomination_Paper_PPE.pdf

Presidential candidate Jim Terr has informed us that he'll be joining Project White House 2012, although he says aim to have "a couple of affairs and rehabs between now and January 9."

You, too, can run for president in Arizona. Find out how here!