Harvard law professor says he is running for White House
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig has announced that he is a candidate for the White House, saying he is running to address election campaign finance reform, voting rights issues and political gerrymandering.
The Democrat made the announcement in an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday evening, saying that he made his mind after exceeding his $1 million crowd-funding goal.
“I think I'm running to get people to acknowledge the elephant in the room,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
"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.”
If elected, he said he would serve only as long as it takes to pass his Citizens Equality Act of 2017, which is aimed at reforming campaign finance, voting rights, and congressional representation.
Once the bill is passed, the 54-year-old said he would resign from his post and let his vice-president take over. He did not name his potential vice-presidential picks.
Lessig had said he would quit his post at Harvard and focus on the nomination race if he reached the $1 million benchmark.
He said other candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, were not interested in “returning political power to citizens”.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has voiced opposition to the Supreme Court Citizens United decision as the focal point of his campaign and says if he becomes president he will make sure his Supreme Court nominees vote to overturn it, referring to the ruling that allowed unlimited independent spending by corporations in elections.
The 5-4 Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court in January 2010 freed corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want on presidential and congressional elections.
The decision helped open the floodgates of corporate spending in elections, rendering the average American voter almost voiceless while further boosting the influence of the rich in the electoral process.
Advocates for campaign finance reform say the Citizens United decision fundamentally changed the nature of politics in the United States and gave too much power to the very wealthy.
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