Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig, famous for constantly advising Democrats on how to beat Republicans, is about to get his chance to prove his case as he throws his own hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for president.
Lessig, a vocal advocate for changing our campaign finance laws, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos and said that once he clears the one million-dollar mark in his fundraising campaign, he will join the other Democrats in the hunt for the nomination.
Saying, “I’m in, George,” Lessig expects to top the donation mark over the long holiday weekend.
Lessig told Stephanopoulos that government “does not work,” and he wants to fix it.
“This stalemate, partisan platform of American politics in Washington right now doesn’t work,” Lessig said. “And we have to find a way to elevate the debate to focus on the changes that would actually get us a government that could work again, that is not captured by the tiniest fraction of the 1 percent who fund campaigns and make it impossible for our government.”
Lessig has been a harsh critic of the free speech ruling in Citizens United court ruling and has been a loud proponent of reversing that ruling.
Lessig apparently got tired of waiting for extreme liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to jump in the race, and so he is making the move himself. Lessig had been the head of the several efforts pushing Warren’s ideas, but it is now clear that Warren was serious all along when she insisted she wasn’t interested in running for president in 2016.
Lessig is also known as a frequent critic of Hillary Clinton.
Despite his claims of being the one candidate who cares about the process, Lessig is not above dirty campaigning and even outright lies. Back in 2014 when Scott Brown was running for the Senate in New Hampshire, Lessig sent out a mailer smearing Brown a “Washington Lobbyist.” But in fact, Brown was not a lobbyist, a fact that Lessig was later forced to admit.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.