Arizona's other presidential candidate

He has no staff. He has no money to speak of. He has no endorsements, has never held public office, and doesn't even have a bachelor's degree.

What Daniel Kingery, a 46-year-old a divorced laundry business owner from Willcox does have in spades is perseverance, a unique take on American democracy and ideas for how the country's ills can be corrected - big ideas.

Kingery, who on his campaign website admits he's "been a thief, adulterer, verbally insulted others, drank, smoked, killed, and lied," has been touring the country for months in his 1986 Ford Crown Victoria, spreading the word about his campaign and trying with all his might to scare up media attention. By his own accounting he's campaigned in 24 states at this point.

He was taking a break in a Lexington, Ky. park when he told PolitickerAZ about one of the central planks of his platform. It's a doozy.

"We need to abolish the legislative branch."

Say again?

"The Declaration of Independence is the highest law in the land – not the Constitution. It vests people with the power to alter or abolish their form of government."

Yes, but the United States always has been, as intended, a representative democratic republic. The Declaration was ratified by the 2nd Continental Congress - who represented the people of the colonies. Would you then have the country become a direct democracy?

"Citizens wouldn't need to have a direct vote. That's what the campaign promises amendment would be for."

He was referring to his other big idea, which almost certainly has more appeal to the general populace than removing their congressional representatives. A President Kingery would move to amend the Constitution - that document he doesn't have the highest regard for - to include breaking campaign promises as a treasonous offense.

"If I’m forced to work with Congress," he said - a certainty, since Congress would need to vote by a 2/3 majority to abolish itself, which would then need approval of 3/4 of state legislatures to put the nail in the coffin - "then I’d like to pass an amendment to make breaking the public trust a treasonous act. Politicians today say they’re going to do plan A, and after they’re elected go with Plan B once they’re in office. That's not representative democracy."

It's an interesting point, especially given that the highest approval rating for Congress in recent years was under 40 percent, and recently its' been under 20.

He continued: "We have a government now that forces taxes on us without our consent, does not provide jury trials in all criminal cases, doesn’t recognize the Declaration of Independence. Every year we get new government agencies that take tax money to fund."

It's important to note that Kingery does not advocate abolishing state legislatures - in fact, he thinks the federal legislature is directly doing them harm.

"We have a legislative branch that uses blackmail to force legislation down on people," he said.

Like what?

"From the people I’ve talked to who’ve dealt with legislative branches in their own states, they had to pass seatbelt laws or they won’t get federal money for roads and bridges. Extortion, or bribery - either way it's illegal."

John Edwards complained he didn't get enough media coverage because his message flew in the faces of too many entrenched interests. Ditto Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, etc. Maybe their equation was right. They all seem like darlings of the status quo compared to Kingery, and like presidents-elect in their share of the media pie.

For all his quixotic aims, Daniel Kingery is fairly pragmatic about what he needs to do to take the chief executive slot against his famous and incredibly well funded rivals - for whom he holds no animosity.

"I’m not in competition with other campaigns - only myself," he said. "I don’t dislike any of them – I don’t have reason to, though I don’t believe they’re very well intentioned in terms of doing what they’re promising.

"I have to get 1.5 million signatures to be balloted nationwide," Kingery explained. "At the moment most coverage I’ve gotten is local newspapers. I’ve got to do my job and gain national recognition before I can put people to work gathering signatures - otherwise there's no point. I don't want to waste their time. A few people have expressed interest, so I’m going to keep them updated on the website. But every TV station I go to refuses to cover me."

So for the moment, Daniel Kingery has to keep driving mile after mile visiting town after town on dwindling funds, hoping that someone will pay attention to him and his principled, if unorthodox, campaign.

"I blew a tire recently, and the people who patched it wouldn't take money," he said. "I put it down as an in-kind donation."