Harvard professor to ‘hack’ politics with White House run

The longtime campaign finance reformer is exploring a run for president on the singular principle of getting big money out of politics-and that if he wins the White House, he would resign when he achieved that goal.

Birmingham, New Hampshire (CNN)Harvard teacher and constitutional attorney Lawrence Lessig released Tuesday he was starting an exploratory strategy to discover whether he can viably get the Democratic nomination for leader.

Lessig would run as a “referendum president” who promises to serve only as long as it takes to pass the Citizens Equality Act of 2017.

“Seems to be the year for that”, Lessig says about “out of the norm” candidacies.

Born in South Dakota and raised as a Republican in Pennsylvania, Lessig has become a champion for campaign finance reform and a well known figure in liberal circles.

Lessig had been part of a group that tried to draft U.S. Sen. He has been active in organizations related to Internet freedom and has been an outspoken advocate form campaign finance reform.

“The biggest challenge is to make it seem plausible and that is going to take a lot of work”, Lessig said Monday.

The reform Lessig is pushing includes: provisions to make voting easier, including by making Election Day a national holiday, allowing online voter registration, and putting in place new safeguards to prevent voter discrimination; provisions to eliminate gerrymandering, including by creating ranked choice voting; and the creation of publicly funded elections, where all voters are given vouchers to use to support candidates.

Lessig has been at the center of technology policy debates for decades and more recently has turned his attention to campaign finance reform.

Lessig considers the final stage – engaging in the discussions – whilst his campaign’s most significant facet.

There are now five Democrats running for office, including Vermont Sen. Jim Webb. Lessig said his candidacy was not in reaction to any one Democrat.

“I would tie every issue in the campaign – from climate change to student debt – to this fundamental corruption”, he said in the video.

Lessig did say that he plans on “calling out the fact that what Bernie Sanders is trying to do can not be done unless we address this first issue first”.

” I’d possess a vicepresident plus they might be leader quickly Easily get”, he explained, incorporating he believes “individuals individuals like Elizabeth Warren, like Bernie ” might match the statement for him.