John Palfrey » DRAFT LESSIG

Status of the DRAFT LESSIG Challenge

palfrey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:34:02 +0000

… there are 350+ donors on ActBlue, (if you’re wondering: the official count is off; it’s too long, since it doesn’t show what we raised for the Draft committee) and hundreds more volunteers have signed up and raring to go, if Prof. Lessig takes the plunge. The goal: get him 1,000+ supporters in a week who give money, pledge to give, or pledge to volunteer for his campaign. We’re well on track. Go, netroots, go.

Among many others, the New York Times has the story, written by SF bureau chief Jesse McKinley, teed up for tomorrow’s paper. That doesn’t hurt at all, either.

Lessig ‘08

palfrey — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:24:17 +0000

Lawrence Lessig makes two announcements. And sets up Lessig ‘08. Watch the video. Then get over to ActBlue and be part of the grassroots movement to convince him to run for Congress by contributing.

Join us in the DRAFT LESSIG Challenge: let’s get 1,000 people to give money or pledge their time to show him that we’ve got his back if he’s up for the challenge.

The DRAFT LESSIG Challenge

palfrey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:35:45 +0000

The DRAFT LESSIG movement — to encourage Prof. Lawrence Lessig to run for the U.S. Congress from California — is off to a quick start. Then again, if it’s going to happen, it has to happen fast: the special election is April 8. The Facebook group we set up a few days ago now has over 2,000 members. Supporters have come out of the netroots from every angle. There are fund-raisers pledged in 6 cities.

One of the common critiques of Net politics is that it’s meaningless just to “join a group” to support a candidate or a cause. I don’t buy it, especially since I think that joining a cause or writing about it often leads to further action.

In the case of the DRAFT LESSIG movement, we ought to prove that there’s something different going on here with politics and the net. In the process, we’ll make it clear to Prof. Lessig that we’ve got his back — that ordinary citizens will contribute the funds needed to run his campaign and that it can be run without support from special interests. Let’s get 1,000 people to donate to his campaign (or otherwise commit to volunteer if a campaign is organized) in the coming week. We’ve set up an ActBlue “draft” account, so you can give money now, to be turned over to the campaign if it materializes. If the campaign does not happen, the money is given in full to Creative Commons. You can’t lose. Please join me in donating now.

DRAFT LESSIG

palfrey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:48:09 +0000

It’s high time we had our first true Free Culture candidate for public office. Who better than the movement’s founder and hero? I have no reason to believe he’d actually do it, but I think we should send a message to Lawrence Lessig that we’ve got his back if he were to run for the Congressional seat that the sad death of Cong. Lantos has opened up in California. Prof. Lessig happens to live there. It’d be the perfect way to take his message of anti-corruption, and pro-creativity, to the seat of US power.

The special election is April 8. I’ve set up a Facebook group (join us, and please invite others!) and a DRAFT LESSIG web site to aggregate would-be supporters for a run. I will be delighted to hold a sign for him in sunny California between now and election day if he were in fact willing to take on the challenge.

The Daily Kos had the rumor of it a few weeks ago. My friend JZ has more…