Lessig decides not to run for Congress
Cyberlaw author and professor Lawrence Lessig has decided not to run for the
U.S. Congress after briefly flirting with the idea, he announced on his blog
Monday.
Lessig said
last week he was considering a run for the House of Representatives seat
in Silicon Valley vacated upon the death of Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat,
earlier this month. Lessig, an advocate for free software and online civil liberties,
had considered a campaign after a "draft Lessig" movement launched
online.
But Lessig wrote Monday that a run for Congress would not help his Change
Congress initiative, which he launched this month. After consulting with
a pollster, Lessig decided there was also "no possible way" to achieve
the name recognition he needed to run against Jackie Speier, a popular former
Democratic state senator in California, in the primary election scheduled for
April 8, he said in a video
on his blog.
"Certainly, we would lose this race, and not just lose in a tight contest,
but lose in a big way," Lessig said.
Losing big, he said, would not inspire others to join the Change Congress movement,
focusing on getting lawmakers to stop taking money from political action committees
and lobbyists and to stop adding so-called earmarks for special projects in
appropriation legislation.
Lessig expressed "regret that this movement, this challenge to change
Congress, doesn't have, here, an early and easy victory."
Lessig thanked people who already sent money, said they'd volunteer or weighed
in on whether he should run, "especially the many friends who in the harshest
way told me it would be a mistake."
Several posters on Lessig's blog applauded him for deciding not to run. "Ultimately,
I think it is a good call," wrote one. "You ... have always had your
eye on the bigger picture, on the long-term struggle and I am glad we have you
fighting on our side. Looking forward to participating in the Change Congress
movement."
Lessig, a Stanford University professor, is author of books such as "Free
Culture" and "Code
2.0." He has served on the boards of the Free
Software Foundation, the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, the Public
Library of Science, and Public
Knowledge.
IDG News Service
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