Why "Lessig for Congress" Might Not Be as Crazy as It Sounds
BY Nancy Scola | Friday, February 15 2008
There's a playful drive
afoot to draft law professor, free-culture guru, and PowerPoint maestro
Larry Lessig to run in the April 8 special election for the open seat in California's
12th congressional district. Thing is, "Congressman Lessig"
might not be as far-fetched as it first seems.
The seat was made vacant by the unfortunate passing of Congressman Tom Lantos,
who represented the district southwest of San Francisco since the early '80s.
What are the odds that Lessig might actually throw his hat in the ring? Well,
we have to consider that for the globe-trotting academic with a very big microphone
as one of the superstars of the tech world, getting sworn in as a freshman member
of Congress -- one of a giant California delegation that includes 52 other representatives
-- might be something of a downward career move.
That said, it's more fun to focus on the possibility that he might actually
make a go of it. What sits on the "he's gonna do it" side of the scale?
For one thing, Lessig has become far more politically engaged in recent years.
Fairly recently he decided to take a step back from a decade's worth of work
on copyright and other creative content issues to focus
the next ten years on what he decided was the most pressing issue of our
time --government corruption, broadly written.
And why did Lessig make his move? For one reason -- and, frankly, the first
one he mentioned in his statement on the topic -- a guy by the name of Barack
Obama. Lessig stated his admiration for Obama's "up or out" approach
to public service, and pledged to help get him to the White House. Obama has
been strong on the issues that Lessig cares about, namely transparency (see,
for example, Obama's
contracting database bill) and openness (see, for example, his advocacy
on behalf of loosening
the control over CSPAN debate footage). And Lessig has been a vocal advocate
on Obama's behalf, most recently via a pair of videos on why
he supports Obama and on Clinton's
supposed unelectibility.
Now that the senator from Illinois is in a great position to actually get the
big job, serving on Capitol Hill as an ally and guide to a President Obama might
be very tempting.
But here's the one bit of evidence that actually finally convinced me that
this "Lessig for Congress" thing might actually have legs. Politics
is personal, right? And the Draft
Lessig for Congress
Facebook group -- 548 members and growing quickly -- was launched by Harvard
professor John Palfrey, Lessig's colleague and, I think it's fair to say, good
friend. Maybe he knows something we don't.