PHOENIX — It's rare when a candidate for any elected office says that what he thinks is not important. It's what voters want, that matters the most, says Marc Victor.
Victor is the Libertarian candidate running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona.
If his name sounds familiar it's probably from his work as a criminal defense attorney. He has defended several high-profile cases and appeared on local news shows as a legal expert. Victor spoke with ABC15 about his campaign and his hope to bring civility and morality back to the U.S. Senate.
"Live and let live" is more than just a campaign slogan for Victor. In his universe, it means don't infringe on people's rights. Victor says a vote for him is a vote for civility, freedom, and peace.
"People are trying to impose their own moral views on other people thru the law right," Victor said. "The Republicans have ideas about how you live. They want to pass laws to make that happen. The Democrats have ideas they want to pass laws to make that happen. I don't even tell people about my personal positions because it doesn't matter. I'm not trying to get my personal opinions into the law."
Victor knows the law, working 28 years as a criminal defense attorney. He defended Elizabeth Johnson, accused in 2010 in the disappearance of her son Gabriel. The boy was never found. Victor maintains his law practice even as he pursues his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
On immigration, Victor calls for securing the border. But he also supports a pathway to citizenship.
"Nobody has a right to live at the expense of anybody else. So you don't get to come to America, and then require that other people pay for various services and things like that," Victor said. "But to also be clear on this I favor a path to citizenship here. I would go further than just the dreamers, I think people who have come here illegally, and who have now made a life and a living here and have been otherwise law-abiding, okay, because if they're committing crimes, if they're real crimes, then they're aggressors. We don't need more aggressors here."
Victor says Democrats and Republicans are both responsible for the nation's $31 trillion deficit and the inflation that came with it. He supports a free-market economy and tax cuts. "It means we got to stop this horrendous amount of spending that we have, nobody's even talking about cutting spending anymore. I'm talking about cutting spending, and I want to cut it dramatically. I think we could be on the verge of a major financial collapse," Victor said before adding, "the final piece on that is we got to be competitive, we got to be the best place in the world to do business, which means we have to cut not all regulations, unnecessary regulations."
On abortion, Victor believes the issue should be left to cities and local governments to decide, not states or Congress. "As to the question, when should we afford rights to an unborn baby... in fact, if you want to put it in 'live and let live' terms that legal principle that I spoke about the question here is when does that legal principle start protecting an unborn baby? Is at that moment of conception? Is it 15 weeks? Is it viability, is at some other point later down the road? On this point, reasonable minds disagree. There is no right answer here. So, I don't want to impose my position here. Mark Kelly does, and so does Blake Masters. What I want to do is let the local community decide."
Victor runs his campaign from his law office. He's raised only a fraction of the money Senator Mark Kelly and Blake Masters have raised. But he is counting on his message, "live and let live" delivered daily on the Marc Victor for Senate website to resonate with voters and offer him a pathway to victory.
