Lessig decides not to run for Congress

LESSIG DECIDES NOT TO RUN FOR CONGRESS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
Cyberlaw author and professor Lawrence Lessig has decided not to run for the U.S. Congress after briefly flirting with the idea. Lessig wrote Monday that a run for Congress would not help his Change Congress initiative, which he launched this month. After consulting with a pollster, Lessig decided there was also "no possible way" to achieve the name recognition he needed to run against Jackie Speier, a popular former Democratic state senator in California, in the primary election scheduled for April 8. "Certainly, we would lose this race, and not just lose in a tight contest, but lose in a big way," Lessig said. Losing big, he said, would not inspire others to join the Change Congress movement, focusing on getting lawmakers to stop taking money from political action committees and lobbyists and to stop adding so-called earmarks for special projects in appropriation legislation. Lessig expressed "regret that this movement, this challenge to change Congress, doesn't have, here, an early and easy victory."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/25/Lessig-decides-not-to-run-for-...