The 2016 presidential campaign of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Harvard University and cofounder of Creative Commons, was formally announced on September 6, 2015, as Lessig confirmed his intentions to run for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016. Lessig had promised to run if his exploratory committee raised $1 million by Labor Day, which it accomplished one day early. He described his candidacy as a referendum on campaign finance reform and electoral reform legislation.

Lessig dropped out of the Democratic primary on November 2, 2015, shortly after the rules for participation in the next debate were changed such that he would no longer qualify. He then considered other strategies to advance his reform agenda, including the possibility of an independent run.

His campaign platform was unique for its clear priority on passing one thing first: the Citizen Equality Act, a proposal that coupled campaign finance reform with other laws aimed at curbing gerrymandering and ensuring voting access.

Background

Anti-corruption activism Until his leave of absence to launch his campaign, Lessig was the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. His full-time work on corruption began in 2007, when Lessig announced that he would stop focusing his attention on copyright and related matters and work on political corruption instead. In February 2008, a Facebook group formed by law professor John Palfrey encouraged him to run for Congress from California's 12th congressional district, the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Representative Tom Lantos. Later that month, after forming an "exploratory project", he decided not to run for the vacant seat.

Despite having decided to forgo running for Congress himself, Lessig remained interested in attempting to change Congress to reduce corruption. To this end, he worked with political consultant Joe Trippi to launch a web based project called "Change Congress". In 2010, Lessig began to organize for a national constitutional convention, co-founding Fix Congress First!, again with Joe Trippi. He called for a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution"The Movement to Organize the Call for a Convention" CallAConvention.org both in a September 24–25, 2011, conference co-chaired by the Tea Party Patriots' national coordinator,Conference on the Constitutional Convention, Harvard University, September 24–5, 2011 and at an October 2011 Occupy protest in Washington, DC.Tackett, C. (October 19, 2011) "Could #OccupyWallStreet Become a Constitutional Convention?" Discovery / TreeHugger.com Reporter Dan Froomkin said his 2011 book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It,Lessig, L. (2011) Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It (New York City: Hachette/Twelve) excerpt offers a manifesto for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, focusing on the core problem of corruption in both political parties and their elections.Froomkin, Dan (October 5, 2011) "Lawrence Lessig's New Book On Political Corruption Offers Protesters A Possible Manifesto" Huffington Post Lessig also co-founded Rootstrikers, another project to help volunteers to address the problem of money in politics.

The New Hampshire Rebellion, likewise co-founded by Lessig, is a walk to raise awareness about corruption in politics.Lawrence Lessig, "Why We're Marching Across New Hampshire to Honor Aaron Swartz", The Atlantic, January 10, 2014. The event began in 2014 with a 185-mile march in New Hampshire.Jennifer Harper, "Restless grassroots: New Hampshire ‘Rebellion’ declares their state is not for sale" (Inside the Beltway column), Washington Times, December 25, 2014. From Jan 11 until January 24, 2014, Larry Lessig and many others, like New York activist Jeff Kurzon, marched from Dixville Notch, New Hampshire to Nashua NH (a 185-mile march) to promote the idea of tackling "The Systemic Corruption in Washington." Lessig chose this language over the related term "campaign finance reform," commenting that "Saying we need campaign finance reform is like referring to an alcoholic as someone who has a liquid intake problem." The walk was to continue the work of NH Native Doris "Granny D" Haddock, and in honor of deceased activist Aaron Swartz. In its second year the walk expanded to include other locations in New Hampshire.John Koziol, "NH Rebellion Marching Its Way to Concord for Reform" , New Hampshire Union Leader, January 17, 2015.

In May 2014, Lessig launched a crowd-funded political action committee which he termed Mayday PAC with the purpose of electing candidates to Congress who would pass campaign finance reform.Naureen Khan, May 2, 2014, Al Jazeera, May Day PAC wants to end all Super PACs, Accessed May 7, 2014, "kick-start May Day PAC, which, if successful, will help elect enough like-minded lawmakers to Congress in 2014 and 2016 to pass campaign finance reform. ... 'Yes, we want to spend big money to end the influence of big money,' Lessig said" He is on the boards of MapLight and Represent.us.Maplight. "Board Members" at MapLight.org He serves on the advisory boards of the Democracy CaféPenn Alum Lawrence Lessig to Speak at National Constitution Center for Democracy Café Penn News, March 14, 2013 and the Sunlight Foundation.Board and Advisory Board Sunlight Foundation, February 14, 2011 Lessig's TED talks explaining the corruption of Congress and how to stop it have been viewed by millions.

Referendum president concept Lessig laid out the concept of a "reform president," one of four strategies for passing fundamental reform through a corrupted Congress, in his 2011 book, Republic, Lost:

How could a candidate for president credibly signal to the American public that his or her exclusive focus would be to remove this fundamental corruption from our government? ... Here's one path: Imagine a candidate—a credible nonpolitician ... The candidate makes a single two-part pledge: if elected, she will (1) hold the government hostage until Congress enacts a program to remove the fundamental corruption that is our government, and (2) once that program is enacted, she will resign.

In a June 5, 2015 article titled, "Frodo Baggins for President," Lessig elaborated on this idea, suggesting Colin Powell, Bill Bradley, David Walker, Bill Gates, Christine Todd Whitman, Jerry Brown, Joe Scarborough, and Robert Reich as candidates who could run this way, implementing his idea of "the presidency as referendum." Just days later, however, activist journalist Cenk Uygur argued in the Huffington Post that Lessig should implement his own strategy as a "Citizen President."

Exploratory committee

On August 11, 2015, Lessig announced the formation of an exploratory committee in preparation for a possible bid for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016. Lessig vowed that if his committee could raise one million dollars by Labor Day 2015, and if the leading Democratic candidates for president had not yet committed to fundamental elections reform as their first priority, he would run for president. The announcement was widely reported in national media outlets, and was timed to coincide with a media blitz by the Lessig 2016 Campaign. Lessig was interviewed in The New York Times and Bloomberg. Campaign messages and Lessig's electoral finance reform positions were circulated widely on social media.Toussaint, Kristin (August 11, 2015) "Harvard law professor wants to be president—for one day", Boston.com. Retrieved August 11, 2015

Lessig has stated that if elected president he would resign in favor of his vice president when he accomplishes his three stated objectives, which involve addressing campaign finance reform, voting rights issues and political gerrymandering. Prior to his dropping out of the race, he had yet to announce his vice presidential running mate, which he said would have been decided at the Democratic National Convention.

Campaign

Launch

Lessig reached his intended crowdfunding goal of $1 million on September 6, 2015. On his website later that day, Lessig announced his intention to enter the presidential race. The headquarters of the campaign is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He officially launched his campaign on September 9, 2015, in Claremont, New Hampshire. Just over a week later, he spoke at the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention.

As of September 2015, intended New Hampshire Democratic primary voters gave Lessig one percent of the vote.

Debates Lessig was excluded from the first Democratic debate on CNN, after having criticized the requirement that Democratic candidates must earn at least 1% in three major national polls in the six weeks before the debate. Lessig's criticism was centered on the fact that he was excluded from most polls because the Democratic National Committee (DNC) did not officially welcome him to the campaign as it had done for all five other candidates. In the two weeks following his announcement, Lessig was only included in one national poll, in which he met the 1% requirement; other national polls had included Vice President Biden, who, at the time, had yet to announce whether he was running. The day before the CNN debate, the Bloomberg Editorial Board published an editorial entitled, "Let All the Candidates Debate, Democrats," calling for the DNC to include Lessig in the debate.

"All in" On October 16, 2015, due to poor polling on the resignation part of his plan as well as the DNC's non-recognition of his candidacy, Lessig announced on Real Time with Bill Maher that he was dropping the promise to resign after passing the Citizen Equality Act. He elaborated on his decision in an online article for The Atlantic released the following day. Lessig explained that he would now outline his positions on every issue, just like any other campaign, planning to serve a full term as president after fixing democracy first.

Out On November 2, 2015, Lessig suspended his presidential campaign in a video statement."Larry Lessig Drops Out Of Democratic Primary Race", Huffington Post, Nov. 2, 2015. He cited his inability to get one percent support in the polls and being unrepresented in the debates, saying, "I am not well-known to the American public generally." In an essay in the New York Times he further discussed the DNC's change of the one percent rule from "within six weeks" to "earlier than six weeks" to a "five-week period (that) just happened to be crafted to exclude the third poll finding me at one percent"."Why I Dropped Out", The New Yorker, Jan. 28, 2016.

Political positions

Equal citizenship – the first reform Lessig's campaign stated that progress was effectively impossible with the state of political inequality, because members of Congress are reliant on a small number of major donors they need to win elections. Lessig called his Citizen Equality Act "The First Reform," which he said makes the other urgently needed reforms possible. It would: Restore and strengthen voting rights (including automatic registration and making election day a holiday); End gerrymandering, replacing current single-member districts with independently determined, multi-member districts in which ranked choice voting is used to achieve better representation of all citizens' views; Establish "citizen-funded elections," in which each citizen is given a voucher to distribute public funding in a decentralized way, with matching funds for small donations out of pocket as well; and Put strong limits on the revolving door between government work and lobbying.

The details of the Act sought public input to improve it.

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