Lawrence Lessig Called ‘The Most Unusual Candidate For President’ By George Stephanopoulos
On Sunday, Lawrence Lessig announced on ABC’s This Week that he is running for the Democratic nomination for president. His announcement comes in response to meeting the $1 million in donations needed by Labor Day to help finance his campaign.
Talking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Lawrence Lessig explained why he wants to make a bid for the presidency.
“I think I’m running to get people to acknowledge the elephant in the room. We have to recognize — we have a government that does not work. The stalemate, partisan platform of American politics in Washington right now doesn’t work.”
Lessig also announced he is seeking the nomination in a tweet on Sunday.
WE DID IT!!! ($1M in < 4 wks) Thank you all for your support. Now, let's go #fixdemocracyfirst #getmoneyout pic.twitter.com/ZSTpbsAXvQ
— Lessig ?? (@lessig) September 6, 2015
Interestingly, Lawrence Lessig says he will only serve as president long enough to pass the Citizens Equality Act of 2017. The Citizens Equality Act, a bill advocated by Lessig, is an attempt to reform campaign finance, voting rights, and Congressional representation. His plan is to resign as president and hand over the office to his vice president once the bill becomes law.
Lessig giving up the office immediately after passing a bill promising to reform campaign financing has probably eliminated his chances of being a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. It is not likely to sit well with most voters anyway.
Lessig is well aware that this plan goes against the norm but feels it is the best way to get attention to a broken government system, especially campaign finance reform.
It is because of his one issue agenda that George Stephanopoulos called Lessig “the most unusual candidate for president this year.”
In an earlier interview with CNN, Lawrence Lessig expresses the absolute need for change to campaign finance.
“Unless we fix this issue, we can’t do anything else. You want climate change legislation? You want to take on Wall Street? How are you going to take on Wall Street when the biggest contributions come from Wall Street?”
Lessig has not named a running mate as of yet. It may be because any leading Democratic Party members would rather distance themselves from such an unusual political mission.
Lawrence Lessig’s website, however, gives you the opportunity to vote for his VP candidate choice. The results of the survey have yet to be released.
Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor, has a history of trying to fix the campaign finance system. In another story reported by the Inquisitr, Lessig created Mayday PAC in 2014, which only backed candidates who endorsed campaign finance reform. However, the PAC lost most of the 2014 races.
With the announcement from Lawrence Lessig this past Sunday, he is now the sixth candidate vying to be the Democratic presidential nominee. Yet, many political experts question Lessig’s ability to get enough showing in the national polls to even make it to the Democratic debate stage on October 13.
If Lawrence Lessig did make it as far as the presidency, will the American public get two presidents instead of one?
[photo courtesy: Getty Images]
