Just how focused on jobs was tonight’s GOP debate in Mesa, Arizona?

Former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

In total, the four GOP contenders mentioned the word “jobs” only 10 times over the span of two hours — and former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) uttered the word a grand total of zero times.

The first in a series.

TUCSON, Ariz. — “You know who I think needs to run for president?” asks one of the workers clearing away the chairs at the Mason hall where GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum just finished addressing supporters. “Sheldon Adelson.”

A Santorum supporter wears a bumper sticker on his hat during a rally at the Sabbar Shrine Center in Tucson. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)“Who?” asks a fellow worker at the Tucson Tea Party event.

“Sheldon Adelson,” the first man responds. “He’s the guy who gave $21 million to Gingrich’s super PAC.”

TUCSON, Ariz. – Rick Santorum on Wednesday showed no signs of backing down from his provocative statements about President Obama and religion, accusing the president of working to undermine the country’s “Judeo-Christian values” through his implementation of health-care reform and other policies.

People wait in line to attend a campaign rally at the Sabbar Shrine Center for Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in Tucson, Arizona. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)“Essentially, we are going to have to hold together on some set of moral codes and principles,” Santorum said at the Sabbar Shrine in downtown Tucson, speaking before an enthusiastic tea party crowd of about 500 people ahead of an evening CNN debate.

“And we’re seeing very evidently what the president’s moral codes and principles are about. We see a president who is systematically trying to crush the traditional Judeo-Christian values of America. We saw it with Obamacare and the implementation of Obamacare, where his values are going to be imposed on a church’s values.”

It has been almost a month since the last time the remaining Republican presidential candidates debated on stage, but they will face each other again at the last debate before the Arizona and Michigan primaries and Super Tuesday.

The Fix: Why the Arizona debate matters — a lot

Here’s what you need to know to follow it.

CHANDLER, Ariz. — Mitt Romney on Wednesday criticized President Obama’s proposal to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, saying that “he’s actually raising taxes on businesses by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Though Obama’s plan would cut the tax rate paid by corporations, the Romney campaign cited several analyses saying it would raise the revenue it collects from the business sector by eliminating certain tax benefits that help spur job growth.

Romney did not elaborate during a campaign rally at a Christian school here, but he went on to offer a glimpse of a new economic policy proposal he plans to formally unveil on Friday, a plan that would result in “more jobs, less debt and smaller government,” he said.

The plan, details of which have been trickling out all week, would permanently reduce the marginal tax rate by about 20 percent across the board as well as usher in plans to reform entitlements and balance the budget, Romney said Wednesday. He emphasized the plan would include assurances that the top 1 percent of earners pay their fair share.