This Washington Post article quotes Larry Lessig as saying that he is thinking about running for President as an independent. He is unhappy because he is being excluded from the Democratic presidential debate of October 13. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
From the article cited, written by David Weigel:
“The rules are inclusive of politicians, and they’d be inclusive of any billionaire who wants to run, but they’re not inclusive of a viable campaign that has not been on national stage,” said Lessig.
Lessig once sardonically praised Donald Trump for his “progressive” campaign finance positions. In the days since CNN made clear that he would not be invited to Las Vegas, he’d found another area of agreement with Trump.
“Trump said he would stay in the party, and refuse to run as an independent, as long as the Republicans treated him fairly,” said Lessig. “I’m beginning to have a sense of what he was talking about. If the party won’t allow me to run as a Democrat, that creates a lot of pressure to think about a different way of running that would allow me to make this case to the American people. I’ve received as lot of advice and suggestions from people as to how to spread this message. When I first got into this, I frankly didn’t expect that this would be an issue, but it’s something I increasingly have to think about.”
Death is a part of the natural life cycle. Some of them hang on in an undead state that is really sad to witness.
Perhaps none, I’m just trying to help them out. I hate to see parties die.
Even if that is true, it’s very easy to qualify in Florida and Mississippi. What great advantage does the Justice Party give Lessig to outweigh the greater popularity of the Independent label?
Their Twitter account is still active, they announced plans to field a presidential candidate in 2016, and last I knew they were still ballot-qualified in Florida and Mississippi.
The Justice Party is defunct and is not ballot-qualified in any state.
What is there for him to debate? Aside from his single-issue, he isn’t planning to do anything, other than pick his successor.
“Get back to me when I’ve picked a running mate, and then ask them what they’ll do after I resign. Who knows, it might be one of the others on this stage. Vote for me to find out!” ?
I think that whole gimmick, is actually the biggest obstacle to him being taken seriously and recognized as a legitimate candidate. He can still run a single-issue campaign focused on his (unimpressive) package of campaign finance changes. But if he isn’t going to stay in office to do anything else, that’s a not-implausible reason to say he shouldn’t be on stage with those who are actually running to be President for a full four years, and who have actual positions about all the other things the office deals with. (Granted, that’s not the official reason for his exclusion, but is I think part of why he’s been excluded from the polls and given the cold shoulder by the DNC.)
I see even less how it would work as an independent or third-party campaign. The idea now is that, at least in theory, he’ll pick an acceptable Democratic VP/Pres.-to-be, possibly the runner-up for the nomination, or otherwise somebody the Dems plausibly might have nominated. Who does he pick as an independent? As the Justice Party nominee… he campaigns on a pledge to resign and make Rocky Anderson President?
He should seek the Justice Party’s presidential nomination.
I guess the Democrat party isn’t quite as “Democratic” as they would have us believe.