Despite the urgings of fanboys around the world, Larry Lessig is not running for Congress.
If you somehow haven't been paying attention, the Stanford professor, copyright reform advocate and, more recently, an outspoken voice to rid Congress of corruption, pondered trying to fill the Bay Area congressional seat of the late Tom Lantos. Here's a WSJ story if you need a primer.
The many hundreds of people who wanted Lessig to run and contributed to yet-to-be announced campaign seemed to forget one critical point. He would lose. And, not only lose, but lose big and in an embarrassing way. The loss would be pointed at by snickering critics who would say that if Larry Lessig can't win in one of most densely populated tech geek populations in the country than what does that mean?
Why would he lose so bad? Well, besides only having a month to prepare and campaign in the Democratic primary, there was the small matter of who he would face as an opponent.
The leading contender is a state senator named Jackie Speier. After serving for 25 years, she is Democratic royalty in the state. As a staffer to Rep Leo Ryan, she was shot on the tarmac of Jonestown just prior to the infamous massacre. The congressman and others died from their wounds. Speier was one of the survivors.
Since then, while managing other personal setbacks including the death of her husband, Speier has been a force in local and state politics and has the endorsements of everyone and their brother.
Lessig is right to take up his battle from the outside for now. Yes, it would have been thrilling to watch him on the inside. But, it was never going to happen -- no matter what the blog echo chamber could convince themselves of.
