Obama on public financing: a “broken system”

Posted on 19 June 2008
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See the video where he explains why the campaign is opting out of public financing.

With this kind rhetoric, Obama might be setting up to move on campaign finance reform early in his administration…

Why the Democrats should pass campaign finance reform in ‘09

Posted on 9 June 2008
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My friend Nelson Pavlosky and I were watching Larry Lessig’s speech at the National Conference for Media Reform — a barn-burner refrain of his recent talks on corruption. Nelson mentioned that Lessig has been affiliated with the Obama campaign, and wondered whether this suggested campaign finance reform (such as public financing) would be an early priority of an Obama administration — especially given that the campaign is opting out of public funding and is basically raising money hand over fist.

My gut reaction was: probably not. Obama will use his honeymoon and early political capital on popular priorities like the Iraq war and health care, I figured. But as I thought about it more, I realized there’s a major political argument for backing a process reform like campaign finance in the first two years of an Obama administration.

First, campaign finance reform may not be as popular as ending the war, but it reinforces his image and echoes the message of his campaign (”change”).

Second, process reforms put Obama’s stamp on the party and Congress. We know this is important to Obama — see his recent move to ban the DNC from accepting lobbyist and PAC money. Plus, process reforms are a harder sell with party insiders and elected officials than with the general public, so acting early will let Obama capitalize on the early indebtedness of Members who rode his coattails to election or re-election. And we’ve seen that the leadership of both houses has at least some stomach for process reforms: ethics reform was one of the six planks of the Democrats’ “New Direction for America” platform in 2006.

Most importantly, the first two years of an Obama administration may be the only chance for Democrats to move campaign finance reform — especially if they don’t. Here’s why.

Midterm elections are historically bad for the President’s party, when the same party controls both branches. I’ll make the case that 2002 was an outlier for the post-9/11 Republicans, but Clinton hemorrhaged seats in 1994 (the Republican revolution), Bush lost a few in 1990, Reagan lost a bunch in 1982, Carter lost some in 1978, etc. I think 2010 could be a big loss for Democrats, since so much of the progress they’ll make in 2008 (and we could also include the gains of 2006 here) is a reaction against Bush. In 2010, Republicans will have had two years to distance themselves from Bush and bury his memory, and will almost certainly try to re-frame themselves as a party. On the other hand, everything bad that happens after 2008 will be blamed solely on the Democrats, since they’re the only ones in charge.

As a result, the excitement advantage of Democratic voters vs. Republicans will almost certainly shrink from 2008: Obama won’t be on the ticket to drive up turnout, and Republicans will whip up their voters by demonizing two years of Democratic policies. This decline in advantage will apply to fundraising, as well.

But the Democrats can blunt this advantage by passing campaign finance reform before 2010. In fact, the Democrats could build themselves a long-term advantage, depending on the type of reform they pass: for instance, the Democrats could leverage their advantage raising money from small donors by basing public funding on demonstrated support from a large number of small donors, and/or by lowering the maximum donation limit for each individual.

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Everybody4

Posted on 15 May 2008
Filed under Copyright, Politics
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There’s a certain irony in the fact that Lessig and Berman have endorsed the same candidate.

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Now blogging @ Florida Progressive Coalition

Posted on 31 March 2008
Filed under Florida, Personal, Politics
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Florida Progressive Coalition is a group blog about politics in Florida from a progressive perspective. I recently started blogging there. My posts so far:

To follow my future posts, grab the RSS feed of my posts there. (That link will only include posts by me, not by other authors on the blog; here’s the feed for posts by everybody.)

On the subject of the first post, see also the op-ed by Linda Chapin in Sunday’s Sentinel.

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Obama now organizing in Florida

Posted on 29 February 2008
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I heard an interesting item tonight: now that Florida’s primaries are over, the Obama campaign is coordinating with its supporters in Florida. Apparently, the campaign asked supporters to host election night house parties on the evening of the March 4 primaries. The Obama campaign now has a 305 phone number and an address in Miami Beach. I heard the latest goal was 200 house parties statewide — a revised goal after the earlier target of 100 was quickly achieved.

To be fair, these house parties are framed as fundraising events. But let’s be honest: looking ahead to the general election, Obama needs to connect with Florida voters more than he needs their money. Before the nomination is settled, Obama is already investing in his activist base in Florida.

This seems like the counterpoint to worries (such as these) that the Democratic nominee may be at an insurmountable disadvantage due to the Florida primary blackout. I think Democrats are clearly at a disadvantage, but I’m not certain it’s insurmountable. Republican head start vs. Democratic momentum is a toss-up in my book.

Update: Also, I wonder if the Clinton campaign is doing the same thing. Clinton came to Florida on election night, but I wonder if she’s followed up with base-building, or if she’d be starting from scratch with the nomination.

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(Don’t) Draft Lessig [UPDATE: Yes, do]

Posted on 19 February 2008
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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.

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Echoes from history: W. J. Bryan v. evolution in Florida

Posted on 18 February 2008
Filed under Florida, Politics
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Florida is in the midst of a hullabaloo about whether to add evolution explicitly into the state’s teaching standards for science. Sadly, there is opposition, and as you might expect, most of the opposition appears to be premised on religious objections. (Aside: In addition to stepping up our science education, maybe we need to improve the way we teach the First Amendment as well.)

Unrelated to all this, I was doing some reading on University of Florida history, and I stumbled upon an uncanny analogue from Florida history, involving a nationally-renowned politician — from more than 80 years ago:

When [William Jennings Bryan] published his famous pamphlet, “The Menace of Darwinism,” he sent two hundred copies to [University of Florida president] Dr. [Albert A.] Murphree to be distributed to the Florida faculty and to the students taking sociology courses. On February 21, 1922, he lectured on evolution to the students in the University gymnasium. His talk, which he called “Tampering With the Mainspring,” condemned the spirit of mind-worship which, he said, was threatening the universities of the country. This problem had not become quite so serious on southern campuses, he thought, as it was elsewhere in the country. An “hypothesis,” according to Bryan’s definition, was “a scientific equivalent for a guess,” and if this was true then Darwin’s hypothesis was not fact but only a guess. It was hardly, from Bryan’s point of view, an acceptable substitute for the word of God. He told his student audience that Darwin’s “guess” had “absolutely no evidence to support it,” and that in all the fifty years of scientific research the evolutionists had “not yet been able to find one single instance of a change from one species to another.”

Bryan seems to have carried his audience with him throughout the lecture. The students, according to a newspaper account, were “completely under his spell throughout the entire evening, laughing or serious, thoughtful or jubilant, just as he pleased. Applause interrupted the discourse throughout, and a ‘long Gator’ was lustily given at the end.” Bryan believed that President Murphree endorsed this stand on evolution, and he congratulated him on being “the head of a great university who has not been carried away by the ape theory.” Perhaps at the time he was remembering his dispute with the President of the University of Wisconsin who had said that Bryan’s lectures were more likely to make atheists than believers. The Great Commoner answered this with the claim that Wisconsin was teaching the theory that men had “brute blood” and were descended from apes.

Bryan kept Murphree informed of his plans to have the Florida legislature pass laws to prohibit teachings which were contrary to the Bible. Such legislation, Bryan thought, should “prohibit the teaching of atheism and agnosticism and teaching as true, Darwinism or any other evolutionary hypothesis that links man in blood relationship with the animals below him.” In a speech in Tallahassee, he denied that he was trying to “stifle freedom of conscience,” or curtail academic freedom. He said: “We only ask that if you will not permit Christianity to be taught in public schools that you do not allow the atheists, agnostics, or the Darwinists to spread their doctrine.” With the passage of such legislation, Bryan’s agitation against teaching evolution in Florida schools subsided somewhat.

He gave a series of talks on the campus in February, 1924, including one on evolution. President Murphree said: “His foolish notions on evolution came in for a round, though he was not so bitter and not quite so unreasonable. Most of his talks were on Government, Economics, Public Speaking, Religion and the Bible.” Bryan actually knew very little about the technical aspects of evolution, and the Vice-President of the University said that he had “made himself ridiculous to the students.”

Samuel Proctor, “William Jennings Bryan and the University of Florida“, Florida Historical Quarterly 29 (July 1960 - April 1961).

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Lessig for Congress — I hope

Posted on 15 February 2008
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I didn’t want to say anything about this — after the DailyKos diary, even after Joi blogged it — but now that it’s all over Slashdot (Zittrain jumps in, too), I won’t hold back any longer.

Larry Lessig for Congress. Please.

We would be so lucky — to have such a friend, a leader with such integrity, an advocate with such courage, in Congress.