Prof. Lessig's July 2nd email

Prof. Lessig sent out an email on July 2nd, bearing the subject line "it's working". The text of the email is appended below.

In laying out the activity of the campaign finance reform movement, and giving a status report of the same, the email makes no reference to the phenomenon of the Bernie Sanders 2016 Presidential campaign. That campaign is bursting with numbers, energy and momentum, and at the moment, as a vehicle for the advancement of campaign finance reform, Bernie 2016 would appear to be dwarfing what the campaign finance reform movement has been building for the past several years and what the CFR movement is currently doing. This would include MAYDAY, and Every Voice, Represent.US, Wolf PAC and Take Back Our Republic, which are mentioned in Prof. Lessig's email.

I have been working on pushing synergy with Bernie 2016 and I have repeatedly solicited the views of MAYDAY and other CFR organizations about the potential for that synergy, but I have heard no response.

Maybe Prof. Lessig  has not reached a conclusion about the potential of synergy with Bernie 2016, and he will say about that at such time as he reaches a conclusion. If Prof. Lessig has, at this time, concluded against it, I think it would be appropriate for him to explain why.

Sincerely,

Rob Shattuck

[Text of Prof. Lessig's July 2nd email]

Rob -- 

As we head into July 4th, I couldn’t be happier. And I couldn’t feel better about where things are headed.

We’ve made incredible progress lately, and I’m happy to report that we are (still) not asking for your money. Instead, I want to ask you to help us thank the leaders who have stepped up for reform, and to give you another reason to celebrate with us this weekend.

We launched v2 just over three months ago with a commitment to experimenting with many types of grassroots tactics, ditching those that didn’t produce results and doubling down on those that did.

From creating a call tool that enables citizens to contact Reps with ease, to coordinating in-district meetings with congressional staff, and even creating an innovative voicemail campaign that generated thousands of messages we delivered to Congress on your behalf, we’ve been pushing the boundaries of traditional campaigning.

This has been such a rewarding summer – because it’s working!

Already, we’ve seen seven members of Congress answer the call for leadership from their constituents by co-sponsoring the Government by the People Act (HR 20) in the House. And recently, 20 leaders in the Senate signed on to support the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 1538), which mirrors the House bill. 

But we didn’t do this alone.

It took veteran leaders in the movement like Every Voice, led by David Donnelly, to build the national political power and awareness over the years that we’ll need in order to fundamentally reform the way we fund campaigns.

And groups like Represent.US and Wolf PAC, who continue building a massive grassroots movement across the country that engages citizens to take action in their own backyard.

Take Back Our Republic, a new pro-reform conservative organization led by John Pudner has done fantastic work to create a place where conservatives can make the case to others that our broken campaign finance system inhibits many things the Right holds dear – smaller government, smart regulatory and tax reform, less spending – just as it blocks many things important to the Left.

But most importantly, none of this would have been possible without your belief that things could change. Indeed, things are changing. And I hope that you’re able to reflect this weekend on the progress we’ve made in just one year since launching Mayday PAC.

What you did these past few months has given me and many more an immense amount of hope. But now it's time to take that sense of hope and translate it into action that will win our democracy back.

If you haven’t yet told us how you’d like to get involved, let us know here.

And PLEASE JOIN US IN THANKING those who recently answered the call for leadership from their constituents by co-sponsoring the Government by the People Act. It’s easy, just click their names to open a tweet thanking these recent leaders: @SethMoulton (MA-06), @RepKarenBass (CA-37), @JacksonLeeTX18 (TX-18).

I can't say it enough: Thank you for making this all possible.

-Lessig

P.S. Check out this recent blog post from a resident in California who encouraged his representative to lead for reform by co-sponsoring HR 20. It’s really impressive.