Michael Kielsky says no "Papers Please Police State"

Pearce recall election: Mesa candidate pushes for change

by Gary Nelson - Aug. 19, 2011 11:23 AM

The Arizona Republic

In Michael Kielsky's ideal world, marijuana would be decriminalized, Senate Bill 1070 would go away, people would stop begging the government for "protection" from illegal immigrants, taxes would be far lower and personal freedom would reign supreme.

The Mesa lawyer is offering himself as a Libertarian alternative to the Republicans who have said they will run in the November election that will decide whether Senate President Russell Pearce keeps representing Mesa in the Legislature.

Those Republicans include Pearce himself; charter-school executive Jerry Lewis; and Olivia Cortes, who has declined to comment on her candidacy.

Whether there actually will be an election remains the subject of legal wrangling. This week the state Supreme Court remanded to the Arizona Court of Appeals an effort by Pearce's legal team to overturn a county judge's ruling that the election can go forward.

The final list of candidates is still a work in progress, too. Sept. 9 is their deadline for gathering 621 valid nominating signatures to get on the ballot.

Lewis planned to submit his nominating petitions to the secretary of state on Thursday.

Kielsky, 46, was a software engineer before he became a lawyer five years ago.

And, he said, he was a Republican until President George H.W. Bush reneged on his "read my lips" anti-tax pledge in the early '90s.

"Politicians from both parties - they say one thing but they don't mean it," Kielsky said. "They don't follow through on their promises."

Whether his candidacy dilutes the anti-Pearce vote in November was not a factor in deciding to run.

"There isn't a candidate that represents what I represent in the race, so I felt it was appropriate" to step up, he said.

Among Kielsky's positions:

- Marijuana: "We gotta at the very least decriminalize marijuana wholesale, across the board . . . There is no moral argument for criminalizing the use and possession of that drug."

- Role of government: "We have a dearth of real, true freedom in this country and it's getting worse and worse because all these individuals that are getting elected tend to be busybodies." Numerous bureaucracies should be eliminated altogether.

- Immigration: "We don't have an illegal immigration problem. We have a welfare state problem." Kielsky said many complaints about illegal immigrants center on their use of government programs; that complaint goes away when the programs are eliminated.

As for the argument that immigrants take jobs from citizens, Kielsky said that's not the government's problem.

"In a way that's also a welfare-state argument: 'I need the government to step in and protect me from these people who offer to do the work for less money.' "

- Senate Bill 1070: Claiming that Pearce's anti-immigration law encourages racial profiling, Kielsky said the measure should be repealed.

"We're creating an internal police ID-check state. In Arizona, you're not required to walk around with government ID. . . . What have we come to? This is America, for God's sake - isn't it?"

Kielsky's legal cases sometimes reflect his Libertarian politics. He represents the owners of Angel Tattoo, whose lawsuit contesting Mesa's denial of an operating permit will be argued next month before the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Kielsky also represented a man who allegedly defied freeway speed cameras by wearing a monkey mask while driving, making it impossible to tell who was actually behind the wheel when pictures were snapped.

Kielsky has run for several offices in the past - once for justice of the peace, once for Congress and twice for county attorney. He is married and has four children.