Update: The premise of all this is made irrelevant in the announcement video posted at lessig08.org.
The campaign to draft Larry Lessig to run for Congress in California’s 12th district has grown markedly since I first blogged about it. The Facebook group has grown to more than 2200 members. On Monday, the campaign set a goal: to sign up 1,000 donors or volunteers within a week. (If he doesn’t run, the donations will go to Creative Commons.) The deadline to declare for the race is next Monday, so we’ll know soon.
I’ve already said why I’d be enthusiastic about a Lessig candidacy. But there are good reasons not to be enthusiastic, too. First, we might not win: there’s already a strong candidate in the race, who seems to be generally liked by progressives, so a campaign would be hard-fought and expensive (especially in such a compressed time frame — the election is in April). But even if Lessig won — what if he storms the Capitol, only to be politically neutered, demoralized, and/or diverted from his other work? These aren’t reasons not to run, but they’re enough to make you think twice. I wonder if there’s not a way to hedge our bets here.
Whether or not Lessig intends to run, I hope he’ll try to meet with Speier. Lessig can use the momentum from the draft effort — and the threat of a competitive race — to talk about the issues he’s so strong on. If they see eye-to-eye, he could ask her to adopt his agenda, and endorse her. If they don’t agree, and Larry wants to run, then we rally behind him.
I hope Larry will consider it. If we can keep Lessig in his current work, avoid a primary between two good candidates, and win an advocate in Congress, that’s a “win-win” to me. As Matt Stoller wrote of a Lessig candidacy:
There might be no better way to energize and overtly politicize the free culture world and combine their energy with the liberal blogs to create a movement for change.
Hopefully, we can mcarry that momentum forward, whether Lessig runs or not.
Update: Whoops, typo.
