Stanford Law Prof Decides Against Congressional Bid
In just one week’s time, Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig has gone from a possible congressional candidate to a law professor with a mission to reform pork-barrel spending and lobbyist influence.
Lessig caused something of a stir last week when he announced he was considering a run for a seat in the San Francisco area left open by the death of Rep. Tom Lantos. Before his cancer death, Lantos had endorsed former state Sen. Jackie Speier, a popular liberal who opposes the Iraq war.
Now Lessig says he has decided to drop the idea after concluding he would lose the race against Speier “in a big way,” the San Jose Mercury News’ Vindu’s View from the Valley blog reports. He posted his decision in a video on his blog.
Lessig gave the blog Legal Pad two reasons for his decision. He said he doesn’t want to hurt the reform movement with a run against Speier. And he said his message is too complicated to get out before the April 8 special election. He made the decision after spending Sunday holed up with his advisers.
“It would be so hard in this compressed period to make the campaign sound like it was anything other than an extremely negative campaign against the extremely popular representative [Speier], and that wouldn’t be productive for anybody,” he told the blog.
Another law professor, David Orentlicher of Indiana University, remains a candidate for a congressional seat in his state.
