This is Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. Thousands of PCCC members donated to Mayday PACs effort to make campaign finance reform a 2014 election issue. I am incredibly excited about the progress we have made so far, and we are keenly focused on making this year a successful first step to that critical goal. I’m writing today to ask you to support someone who I believe is the most important anti-corruption candidate in any race in America today -- Zephyr Teachout, running for Governor in New York. Will you donate $3 or more to Zephyrs campaign? This is the only person not running for Congress that I will ask you to support. But I wouldn’t make an exception to Maydays “Congress-only” rule if this weren’t important. And this race is critically important. Zephyr is running in the Democratic Primary for governor. She is running against Andrew Cuomo -- a man who ran for governor on an anti-corruption platform, but who has now made a mockery of our cause. Failing to deliver on his promise to change the way elections are funded in New York was bad enough. But now we have learned that he corruptly influenced his own anti-corruption commission to protect his friends from criticism or embarrassment, while allowing the commission to criticize and embarrass his enemies. Cuomo’s response was even worse -- almost Nixonian: There was nothing corrupt, he said, about him interfering with “his “independent” (as he called it) anti-corruption commission because the commission worked for him. He was free, Cuomo argued, to tell the world it was “independent,” explicitly saying it was free to investigate anyone, while secretly telling the commission to stay away from leads that might embarrass him. That was Nixon’s argument when he told the Watergate special prosecutor to withdraw his demand for the tapes that eventually brought down his administration. It was wrong then. It is wrong now. It shows a stunning blindness to the role of a leader -- certainly a self-proclaimed leader of the anti-corruption cause. Zephyr Teachout is how we hold Cuomo accountable. Please donate to her campaign today. I have known Zephyr for more than a decade. I relied on her scholarship in my own book, Republic, Lost, and I have used her analysis again and again in my talks. She is a tireless fighter for better government. She would make an outstanding governor. And she will stop at nothing to end the corruption in New York government -- starting at the very top. Zephyr needs our help now. The governor has tried to keep her off the ballot by arguing first that the 45,000 signatures she turned in were not enough (state law requires 15,000). Then his lawyers said she wasn’t a resident because she made too many trips to visit her parents in Vermont. A judge has now ruled against these absurd arguments, but the governor has vowed to appeal the decision. The New York Times has criticized him for his “political bullying” and urged him to take seriously a serious candidate challenging him in a primary. The experts say it will be tough to beat Cuomo. I remember being told how tough it was going to be to raise $1M in 30 days, and then $5M in the next 30 days. But we did it with the help of thousands of PCCC members and others. That experience taught me one thing: If you give America a plan for fixing their corrupt government, well step up together to do it. Zephyr is the New York plan. She has exactly the right passion and courage. Her primary is next month. And we need to support her. Please click here to donate $3 to Zephyrs campaign. Proudly as Democrats, if you’re a Democrat, because our party should be better than Andrew Cuomo. And proudly as an American, if you’re an American, because we must take this stand against the cynical abuse of a movement that you have done so much to support. We must do whatever we can to support the most important anti-corruption candidate in the nation. Please do whatever you can. -- Lawrence Lessig, Mayday PAC Want to support our work? Ed Schultz called us The top progressive group in the country! Were making big plans for 2014, and monthly donations help us plan with certainty. Chip in $3 monthly here. (You can also donate once here.)
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 23:27:11 +0000
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