Lessig 4Congress?

Stanford Cyberlaw Professor and legal rock star Lawrence Lessig is considering a run for Congress in April's special election to replace the late Chairman Lantos in California's 12th district.  Lessig, who recently switched his academic focus to political corruption from free digital culture, just launched his Change Congress movement in conjunction with an exploratory site.

He also posted one of his trademark Keynote talks on running for office (I once saw him sell out a massive auditorium in the New York Public Library along side Wilco's Jeff Tweedy with one of these talks).

Does Lessig stand a chance?  While I'd love to say yes, odds are he won't be able to win the district.

Sure, name drop "Lawrence Lessig" in Silicon Valley and most people know who you're talking about (seriously), but the 12th district doesn't purely cover the Valley.  He's got geek street cred, but virtually zero name recognition in much of the district.

I recently spoke with Niels Lesniewski, the House Committee Editor for Gallery Watch at Roll Call about Lessig's possible entry.  Niels noted that Lessig's opponent would be Jackie Speier, a Democratic state senator, who prior to Lantos' announcement that he would retire at the end of this term, had intended to challenge Lantos in the democratic primary.  After Lantos announced his retirement in January, he endorsed Ms. Speier as his successor, taking a seasoned political veteran, and launching her campaign without much effort on her part.  Lessig, however, has never run a campaign before (though he has argued before the supreme court), and would have to mobilize enough support before April 8 to ensure Ms. Speier could not attain a majority of the vote, then run again in a June 8 runoff election.

What he does have on his side is a massive national network of wealthy fans who would likely donate the maximum possible contribution for his run.  If he can organize and mobilize this fundraising network immediately, he might be able to bring in the political professionals necessary for the operation of a campaign and actually stand a chance at forcing the runoff and giving him a real shot at this.

Would I love to see Lessig in Congress:  Yes.

Would he actually make a substantial positive difference there: unequivocally yes.

Can he win under these circumstances:  Probably not.

Will I be contributing if he does decide to run: What's California's maximum contribution limit?