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A citizen-funded super PAC, to end all super PACs.

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Mayday PAC in the Media

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# Mayday PAC in the Media
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###[VOX (Video): Lawrence Lessig's Super PAC wants to kill Super PACs](http://www.vox.com/2014/6/30/5857450/lawrence-lessigs-super-pac-wants-to-kill-super-pacs)
> Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig believes he’s found a way to fight — and possibly end — superPACs forever. But first, he needs to form a SuperPAC of his own. Lessig talked to Ezra Klein about how big money influences policy, why he launched his own superPAC, and how to make politicians listen — really listen — to ordinary Americans.



###[Motherboard: How Aaron Swartz Helped Inspire the Super PAC to End All Super PACs](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-aaron-swartz-helped-inspire-lawrence-lessigs-mayday-pac)
> Several years ago, the late internet activist Aaron Swartz had a conversation with one of his mentors, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, that would change Lessig’s future. At the​ time—2007—​Lessig was one of the nation’s top authorities on internet policy and digital copyright law. But at a tech conference in Germany, Swartz challenged Lessig to reevaluate his life's mission.

> “How do you ever think you’re going to make any progress on these issues so long as there’s this corruption in the way our political system works?” Swartz asked, Lessig recalled in a recent interview with Ben Wikler, a radio host and political activist who worked closely with Swartz.



###[The Boston Globe: Super PAC aims to end all other super PACs](http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/06/28/harvard-law-professor-starts-super-pac-end-all-super-pacs/XwFwcP750RzWvbjNYAyz9M/story.html)
> The mission is simple, if not counterintuitive: Design a super PAC to destroy all super PACs, huge political action committees that allow for unlimited contributions from people, corporations, associations, and unions.

> Then, Mayday PAC plans to use the lessons learned to get a large slate of candidates into office in 2016, with the aim of 218 in the House of Representatives and 60 in the Senate.



###[The New American: Article V Promoter Praises Democratic Leadership in Movement](http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/18591-article-v-promoter-praises-democratic-leadership-in-movement)
> As recently as March 21, 2014, both Lessig and Meckler spoke at the same event, this time at the Citizen University’s (motto: “Let’s Do Democracy”) Annual National Conference in Seattle; Lessig’s topic was “How to Start a Rebellion,” featuring “bottom up change and passionate cross-partisan political rejuvenation.” 

> Lessig’s connection with CFA and Mark Meckler is not so much an endorsement for a BBA or limited government as it is an opportunity for Lessig to work alongside conservatives toward the common goal of a constitutional convention.


###[NJ.com, Opinion: Small political donations can have big impact in Super PAC fight](http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/06/opinion_small_political_donations_can_have_big_impact_in_super_pac_fight.html)
> Politics and money always have been cozy together, but in this new unregulated era, the politics of money may well reign over the politics of the many. We face the prospect of government becoming a vehicle of the wealthy donor class. The inequalities of our economy, which we accept as necessary for capitalism, could become the standard of our democracy.

> The MayDay PAC (mayone.us) is a bold new experiment. Launched May 1, the first-round goal was to raise $1 million from ordinary Americans in one month. Nearly 13,000 individuals contributed more than $1 million in 13 days.



###[Data Center Knowledge: Lessig’s Mayday Super PAC Scales in Google’s Cloud](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/06/26/lessigs-mayday-super-pac-runs-on-googles-auto-scaling-cloud/)
> Both Lifshin and Olds said the Mayday site was saved so quickly by high-caliber engineers who worked for free because many engineers care deeply about open source and support Lessig. The Harvard Law School professor is a well-known political activist who in addition to fighting for campaign finance reform devotes a lot of time to the issues of copyright and net neutrality.

> The Super PAC has recently managed to secure support from a number of Silicon Valley heavyweights. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Union Square Ventures managing partner Fred Wilson, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman have all joined the campaign



###[Deseret News: America's hidden primary, and what you can do about it](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865605817/Americas-hidden-primary-and-what-you-can-do-about-it.html)
> In an unsettling TED talk, Lawrence Lessig informs us that ours is far from the ideal. Of course, we don’t live in a single-party state that filters candidates for mock elections, but we do have a filter; a hidden primary where our influence is anything but equal. And Lessig, a Harvard law professor and former young Republican, explains how it works and what we can do about it.



###[UPWORTHY: A Hollywood Actor Who’s Had Enough Of Our Broken Government Is Actually Doing Something About It (VIDEO)](http://www.upworthy.com/a-hollywood-actor-whos-had-enough-of-our-broken-government-is-actually-doing-something-about-it?c=ufb1)
> Maybe you’re a Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan or maybe not, but what he’s talking about in the video is something the vast majority of Americans desperately want: a government that actually works for the people.



###[The Good Fight: Lawrence Lessig, Aaron Swartz, and the Super PAC to end Super PACs](http://thegoodfight.fm/episodes/25-lawrence-lessig-aaron-swartz-and-the-super-pac-to-end-super-pacs)
> What if you’re doing the wrong thing with your life? That’s what a 20-year-old Aaron Swartz asked Lawrence Lessig. In response, Lessig transformed his career, ending the work on Internet law that had made him famous and turning his sights on the impossible-seeming fight against money in politics.

> On this wrenching, fascinating episode of The Good Fight, Lessig tells his story, lays out his plan, and explains how Mayday emerged from the desperation Lessig felt after Aaron Swartz’s tragic suicide in 2013. 



###[The Register: Web moguls ask YOU to stump up big money to STOP big money from winning in Washington](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/mayday_super_pac_us_politics_tech_moguls/)
> In an irony-laden crowdsourcing venture called Mayday, web entrepreneurs including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffmann are hoping to solve the “big money problem” in US politics.

> “In 2012, 132 Americans funded 60 per cent of the Super PAC money raised in that election cycle,” Lessig said. “That number will go up in 2014. Imagine it goes up by a factor of 250. Even then, the funders of these Super PACs will represent no more than .01 per cent of America.



###[TechCrunch: Silicon Valley Moguls Push For Campaign Finance Reform](http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/24/silicon-valley-moguls-push-for-campaign-finance-reform/)
> The industry contributed more than $51.3 million to PACs, parties and candidates, which is not far behind the gas and oil industry’s $56.6 million worth of contributions. Let’s not forget the industry’s role in some major super PACs, such as Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us. And Napster co-founder Sean Parker has been making large political donations for years.

> If MayDay actually focuses as Lessig says on electing candidates based on their campaign finance platforms, it could create reforms in Washington.



###[Newsweek: Mayday PAC - The Super PAC Built to Destroy Super PACs](http://www.newsweek.com/new-super-pac-aims-bring-down-super-pacs-256003)
> According to Lessig, Silicon Valley is uniquely positioned to change the power of wealth in American politics. Unlike the finance or energy industries, Silicon Valley has yet to mature to the point where it seeks to boost profit through legislative reforms.

> In some sense, Mayday’s approach seems paradoxical: taking money from one major industry and pitting it against another (the devil you know, and all that). But as Lessig points out, Mayday isn’t aimed specifically at pro-Silicon Valley legislation, like that pertaining to visas or net neutrality. “That wouldn’t be a very principled or interesting PAC,” he says. “The only thing the Mayday PAC is trying to do is get legislation passed to change the way elections are funded.”



###[Latest.com: Harvard Professor Creates Crowdfunded Super PAC to Destroy Super PACs](http://latest.com/2014/06/harvard-professor-creates-crowdfunded-super-pac-to-destroy-super-pacs/)
> According to an interview with VICE, Lessig was one of the people behind the publication of the Congressperson’s daily schedule, which blocked out four hours per day for fundraising. Lessig said, “members of Congress were like, ‘What the hell? Why am I here? I didn’t want to become a telemarkter.’”

> In fact, Lessig says this is why the latest Congress has been the most unproductive of our history, because while it is very difficult to pass legislation, it can be very easy to block it. The corruption doesn’t come in these legislators writing bills for their donors – that’s what lobbyists do – it is in their ability to block legislation their donors don’t like.



###[NBC News: Tech Moguls Raise Cash to Fight Washington's 'Big Money Problem'](http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tech-moguls-raise-cash-fight-washingtons-big-money-problem-n139426)
> A group of influential Internet moguls aim to fix what they refer to as the "big money problem" in Washington politics by, well, raising cash. Forming a Super Political Action Committee (PAC) called Mayday, the executives hope to raise $12 million by the midterm elections in November in hopes of supporting candidates who are committed to changing how elections are financed. 



###[Boing Boing: Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants YOU to support Mayday.US and fight Congressional corruption - VIDEO](http://boingboing.net/2014/06/23/joseph-gordon-levitt-wants-you.html)
> Joseph Gordon-Levitt has recorded this video message endorsing the Mayday.US super PAC, through which Lawrence Lessig and supporters are raising $5 million in small-money donations to elect lawmakers who will promise meaningful reforms of campaign finance law to curtail the undue influence of money on politics.



###[Talking Points Memo: Launching A Super PAC To Fight Super PACs](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/launching-a-super-pac-to-fight-super-pacs)
> The core problem with our democracy today is that we have outsourced the funding of campaigns to the tiniest fraction of the 1 percent. As congressmen spend between 30 and 70 percent of their time raising campaign cash, they focus their efforts on no more than 150,000 Americans.

> The cost of the 2014 pilot was estimated at $12 million. And so on May 1, we launched an experiment to see whether we could raise money through a Kickstarter campaign for at least half. We set an initial goal of $1 million in 30 days. Insiders thought this was impossible, but with the help of 13,000 supporters, with a median contribution of just $50, we crossed the $1 million mark in 13, not 30, days. 



###[CrowdFund Insider: The Woz Lends Voice to Crowdfunding Super Pac MayDay](http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/06/42416-the-woz-lends-voice-to-crowdfunding-super-pac-mayday/)
> Cultural icon Steve Wozniak, part of the magic behind the founding of Apple, has spoken up in support of the MayDay PAC founded by Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig. 

> Lessig and his co-conspirators want to crowdfund their very own, non-partisan Super Pac to fight fire with fire.  They already nailed their first goal of raising $1 million and now they want to raise $5 million – by the 4th of July.



###[Slashdot: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC - VIDEO](http://politics.slashdot.org/story/14/06/20/1521202/steve-wozniak-endorses-lessigs-mayday-super-pac)
> Steve Wozniak, co-found of Apple Computer, has come out to endorse Lawrence Lessig's MAYDAY PAC in an animated audio recording. Mayday.US, (formerly MayOne.US) is Lessig's crowd-funded (citizen-funded!), kick-started Super PAC to end all Super PACs. In the video, Wozniak points out that we're never going to get anywhere on issues important to the Internet community and technology advocates if we don't fix the root cause of corruption



###[Truth-Out: 99 Rise on the Move: The Occupation of Sacramento](http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24438-99-rise-on-the-move-the-occupation-of-sacramento)
> The 99 Rise California March for Democracy is out to demonstrate that money can be kicked out of politics and ordinary people can make it happen. The march departed Los Angeles on May 17, 2014 and will arrive in the state capital, Sacramento, on June 22 with plans to occupy the Capitol building if their demands are not met.  As they march through central California, they combat disempowerment by speaking practically about what can be done to get money out of politics.

> 99 Rise is working with over 30 different organizations, including Move On, Dream Defenders, Wolf PAC, San Francisco Green Party and several Occupy groups, and has been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Lessig, Dolores Huerta and several other individuals.



###[Valley Wag: Q&A with Larry Lessig on Why You Should Have Faith in Silicon Valley](http://valleywag.gawker.com/q-a-with-larry-lessig-on-why-you-should-have-faith-in-s-1592426125)
> The story of how a young programmer named Aaron Swartz convinced celebrated academic Lawrence Lessig that no political progress could be made without first reforming campaign finance is now part of Silicon Valley lore. In May, Lessig launched a radical initiative to address the issue: MAYDAY, a SuperPAC that secured funding from two Silicon Valley billionaires in order to curtail the influence of big money.

> "It makes me sick to imagine the amount of time [presidential candidates] spend raising money, but the institutional [issue] we have to do something about quite dramatically is Congress. Because Congress is increasingly an institution that spends all of its time in the business of raising money as opposed to the business of trying to figure out what the right thing to do is."



###[Policy Innovations: Of Moonshots and Slingshots](http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/commentary/data/000282)
> Is it still possible for a government to move against the market to favor society? The May Day PAC established by Lawrence Lessig takes the stance that U.S. electoral politics are entirely controlled by corporate interests due to the realities of campaign financing: Politicians who do not attract lavish spending by corporations and wealthy individuals simply cannot succeed under the current rules.

> The situation may be considerably more complex than that (the Republican-Democrat split in America is as much cultural as political), but legitimate questions can certainly be asked about the ability of the U.S. government to go against U.S. business interests.



###[The Atlantic: Campaign-Finance Reform Has to Be Cross-Partisan](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/campaign-finance-reform-has-to-be-cross-partisan/372983/)
> The vast majority of Americans—more than 90 percent in recent polls—believe it “important” to “reduce the influence of money in politics.” But is the business model of the reformers actually consistent with winning reform?

> This is the fair but hard question raised by the strategy planned by Senate Democrats this summer to force a vote on New Mexico Senator Tom Udall’s proposed constitutional amendment to give Congress the power “to regulate the raising and spending of money” in elections. Forty-three Senate Democrats have cosponsored the resolution. Zero Republicans have. Zero is the same number of Republicans who have joined any of the proposed constitutional amendments now floating about in Congress to, as they are described, “reverse Citizens United.”



###[Salon: Cronies, corruption and cash: Lawrence Lessig on why we need a super PAC to end all super PACs](http://www.salon.com/2014/06/18/teaching_us_to_hate_each_other_lawrence_lessig_on_his_super_pac_to_end_all_super_pacs/)
> This week, Salon called up Lessig in order to discuss some of the details of the Mayday PAC and the vexing problem of money and democracy in America more generally. We also touched on Eric Cantor’s recent shocking defeat and how inequality causes political polarization. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length.

> The aim of the super PAC is to win a Congress committed to fundamental reform by 2016. Fundamental reform in the way elections are funded. To do that, we want to run a pilot in 2014 in five districts to demonstrate that this issue matters to voters and to put Congress on notice in 2016 that we’ll be back in a much bigger way.



###[Huffington Post: How to Tell If Your Member of Congress Is a Crony Capitalist](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/how-to-tell-if-your-membe_b_5506312.html)
> It's a big-money game that has made Americans cynical about politics. A 2011 Global Strategy Group poll found that 71 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of Democrats believed that "money buys results in Congress."

> Elected officials are so dependent on raising this cash that they have become "shape shifters," in the words of Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig: "They constantly adjust their views in light of what they know will help them to raise money."


###[Daily KOS: Americans Can Do Anything](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/17/1307608/-Americans-Can-Do-Anything)
> Amending the Constitution sounds audacious. Particularly when a proposed amendment to guarantee women equal rights failed. But it can be done. It has been done. Recently too.

> And more. They’ve even got the backing of some rich people. On May 1, Lawrence Lessig, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center on Ethics at Harvard, launched the Mayday PAC, which is a super PAC to end all super PACs.



###[Seacoast Online: We voters have more power than we realize](http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140614-OPINION-406140305)
> Be encouraged! Even though 96 percent of voters agree that money is a problem in politics (they're right), 91 percent don't believe it can be fixed (they're wrong). We voters have more power than we think we do! On Tuesday, a congressional primary race in Virginia was won by a newcomer to politics who raised just over $200,000 for his campaign. His losing opponent (the incumbent) raised over $5 million.

> In his book "Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It," Lawrence Lessig proposes nonpartisan plans to end it. It's a 300-page book, but let me wet your appetite with one paragraph from page 266. "First, we convert the first $50 dollars that each of us contributes to the Federal Treasury into a voucher. Call it a 'democracy voucher.' Each voter is free to allocate his or her democracy voucher as he or she wishes. Maybe $50 to a single candidate. Maybe $25 each to two candidates. Maybe $10 each to five candidates. The only requirement is that the candidate receiving the voucher must opt into the system.



###[Huffington Post: To End School Shootings, Tackle Government Corruption](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlotte-hill/to-end-school-shootings-gun-control_b_5489209.html)
> But the sad reality is that we're not going to get more gun control until we've fixed a deeper, more pervasive problem: political corruption. I'm not talking about "money exchanged under the table" corruption, but rather what Harvard Professor Larry Lessig terms "dependence corruption" -- the totally legal dependence that our elected officials have upon the powerful interests that make (and, crucially, break) their campaigns.

> This is the cold, hard reality: Any member of Congress who supports gun control legislation today faces a tidal wave of NRA money aimed squarely at kicking them out of office. In the 2012 federal election cycle, the NRA spent nearly $20 million to defeat politicians -- both Democrats and Republicans -- who voted in favor of gun regulations, and to elect politicians who championed unfettered access to guns.



###[Sacramento Bee: Marchers against ‘big money’ politics reach Merced on way to Sacramento](http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/11/6477265/marchers-against-big-money-politics.html)
> Activists marching from Los Angeles to Sacramento to oppose “big money corruption” in political campaigns reached Merced on Wednesday.

> About a dozen people are making the entire march, and they are usually joined by local supporters as they trek north, Newkirk said. The march has also had notable participants like political activist Lawrence Lessig and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta.



###[Venture Beat: Can crowdfunding end the corrupt influence of money in U.S. politics? $1.5M in donations say yes.](http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/08/can-crowdfunding-end-the-corrupt-influence-of-money-in-u-s-politics-1-5m-in-donations-say-yes/)
> The MayDay.us fund is being billed as the “super PAC to end super PACs” because its main purpose is to install only new congressional members that want to get rid of this kind of unchecked spending.

> MayDay.us raised $1 million in its first two weeks from over 12,800 individual contributors. MayDay.us told VentureBeat once this first goal was met, it saw  large donations from a handful of influential technology business leaders, 



###[Tech Dirt: Crowdfund Our Way To Reducing The Influence Of Money In Politics](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140606/17472727506/awesome-stuff-crowdfund-our-way-to-reducing-influence-money-politics.shtml)
> Larry Lessig's MAYDAY.US. And, yes, we already wrote about this at the beginning of May when the first phase launched, and again when it hit the $1 million goal -- and then secured the second million in matching funds. However, the project has now moved into phase two, where the goal is to raise (and match) $5 million, instead of just $1 million. Already it's around half a million dollars, so there's a long way to go, but it's a good start.

> And, once again, the goal here is to raise this total of $12 million ($1 million + $1 million match in May, and then $5 million + $5 million match in June) as a test for a much larger effort. I've seen too many overly cynical folks say "$12 million isn't enough to change politics." And you're right. But that's not the goal. This is $12 million to be used in specific races as a proof of concept for a much larger moonshot.



###[The Boston Globe: Amanda Palmer pledges support for Mayday PAC](http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2014/06/14/amanda-palmer-pledges-support-for-lessig-mayday-pac/2Dw514xV9VbIEy6tVPZaPP/story.html)
> Singer Amanda Palmer, who knows a thing or two about raising money, is helping Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig in his bid to create a “super PAC to end all super PACs.” Monday, Palmer, armed with a ukulele, is doing an interactive online conversation/concert on www.wizeo.me. The performance is a benefit for Mayday PAC, a group begun by Lessig and GOP media strategist Mark McKinnon in hopes of raising $12 million that could be used to target candidates opposed to inhibiting the political influence of wealthy donors.

> Palmer, who has a wildly devoted following, used the crowd-funding website Kickstarter to raise $1.2 million to finance her last CD and tour. Mayday PAC already has some deep-pocketed patrons, including TED curator Chris Anderson, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Brad Burnham, managing partner of Union Square Ventures, which has funded the likes of Twitter, Kickstarter, and Tumblr.



###[St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Editorial: A 'Star Wars' program for super PACs](http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-a-star-wars-program-for-super-pacs/article_e62adb04-81d3-51fa-a9f2-b406148c3ca4.html)
> A Harvard law professor who is pushing a U. S. constitutional convention has told Illinois lawmakers there are built-in protections against extremes. During a committee hearing, State Rep. Scott Drury (D-Highwood) asked, “These delegates … can say, we think that the best way to address Citizens United is to get rid of the First Amendment – is that a possibility that can come out of this convention?”

> Lawrence Lessig agreed it’s possible, and then posed a question of his own: “Can you imagine 38 states ratifying that?  And, I would suggest, it’s impossible to imagine that there wouldn’t be at least 13 of them that would stop that amendment.”



###[Alton Daily News: Professor Pushes for Constitutional Convention](http://altondailynews.com/news/details.cfm?clientid=17&id=130639#.U54ExfldVyw)
> A Harvard law professor who is pushing a U. S. constitutional convention has told Illinois lawmakers there are built-in protections against extremes. During a committee hearing, State Rep. Scott Drury (D-Highwood) asked, “These delegates … can say, we think that the best way to address Citizens United is to get rid of the First Amendment – is that a possibility that can come out of this convention?”

> Lawrence Lessig agreed it’s possible, and then posed a question of his own: “Can you imagine 38 states ratifying that?  And, I would suggest, it’s impossible to imagine that there wouldn’t be at least 13 of them that would stop that amendment.”



###[Boing Boing: Jason Alexander endorses the anti-corruption Mayday PAC](http://boingboing.net/2014/06/11/jason-alexander-endorses-the-a.html)
> Brian says, "Jason Alexander (of stage, screen & Seinfeld) has decided to endorse the Mayday PAC." Mayday.US is the super PAC that Lawrence Lessig founded to fight campaign finance corruption by raising money to send politicians to Congress if they'll promise to get the money out of politics.



###[Gawker: Lawrence Lessig Is Here to Talk About Money, Politics, and Democracy](http://gawker.com/lawrence-lessig-is-here-to-talk-about-money-politics-1588595648)
> Harvard law professor and public intellectual extraordinaire Lawrence Lessig has a bold idea: raising money in order to take money out of politics. He's here to answer your questions about his plan to start a super PAC with the express purpose of destroying super PACs, and saving democracy.

> "We want to spend big money to end the influence of big money," Lessig has said. "Ironic, I get it. But embrace the irony. Because with enough of us, we can easily build a Super PAC bigger and more effective than the Super PACs of the billionaires."



###[The Daily Beast: Our New SuperPAC Is Going to Change American Politics for $12 Million](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/06/our-new-superpac-is-going-to-change-american-politics-for-12-million.html)
> “Impossible.” As the Army used to say, “The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.” And while we’re not opposed to impossible campaigns, we believe it critical that this movement to “restore democracy” also try the merely “difficult.” For long before two-thirds of Congress will propose an amendment to the Constitution and three-quarters of the states will ratify it, Congress could radically change the way campaigns are funded, through a simple majority vote.

> This is the hard work that Congress should do. It’s easy to hold hearings on resolutions that everyone knows will fail. It takes leadership to force debate on ideas that no one believes can pass—but must pass. That’s the leadership that Lyndon Johnson demonstrated, both in the Senate in 1957, and as President, when he forced a reluctant South to finally accept equal rights. That’s the leadership that this nation needs again, but that, in the grandstanding of D.C. partisanship, seems truly “impossible.”


###[CNN: What I'm reading: The core problem with our democracy](http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/09/what-im-reading-the-core-problem-with-our-democracy/)
> “[T]his, we believe, is the core problem with our democracy today: that we have outsourced the funding of campaigns to the tiniest fraction of the 1 percent,” write Lawrence Lessig and Mark McKinnon in the Daily Beast. “As members of Congress spend between 30 percent and 70 percent of their time raising campaign cash, they focus their efforts on no more than 150,000 Americans – 0.05 percent of the population, about the same number who are named Lester. And for SuperPACs, the numbers are even tinier. In the 2012 election cycle, 132 Americans contributed 60 percent of the SuperPAC money spent in all races. Congress has become dependent upon this tiny slice of the 1 percent, but in no conceivable way does this tiny fraction represent America.”


###[MSNBC: All In With Chris Hayes (VIDEO)](http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-super-pac-to-end-all-super-pacs-274585155931)
> Chris Hayes talks to the man behind a new type of super PAC, one that aims to return some sanity to campaign financing...and maybe just end this whole super PAC thing.



###[TownHall.com: The Game is Rigged, Regardless of Who’s in Charge](http://townhall.com/columnists/cathyreisenwitz/2014/06/09/the-game-is-rigged-regardless-of-whos-in-charge-n1848566/page/full)
> There’s too much money in politics, right? Lawrence Lessig has a new plan to solve an old problem. He wants to end money’s outsize influence on the political process, which subverts democracy and drowns out the masses to do the bidding of the well-to-do few.

> Campaign finance reform comes down to arguing about who gets to decide who gets to be umpire of a game which is, at its core, rigged. And it’s rigged in favor of the rich. Electoral politics is mostly cage matches in the gladiator arena they use to distract us. It’s the circus, and entitlements are the bread.



###[Concord Monitor: Take the battle against big money to the candidates](http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/12216823-95/my-turn-take-the-battle-against-big-money-to-the-candidates)
> Big money flowing into our elections is moving us ever further from Lincoln’s ideal: government of the people, for the people and by the people. This problem is not new, but what had been a tide is becoming a flood. With each campaign, our elected officials grow more dependent on big donations from special interests and less dependent on us, their constituents.

> We’ve reached a tipping point for reform. The Great Recession that began in 2007 exposed government and private institutions as deeply flawed and unable to protect ordinary people. The Supreme Court, contrary to common sense and the beliefs of most Americans, has declared that corporations are people and that enormous spending by a billionaire on politics is speech legally equivalent to actual speech by an ordinary citizen.

> Lessig and other leaders of this fight acknowledge it is a tough one. But they have reminded me that when millions of Americans across the political spectrum get riled up and demand change, Congress will listen and will act, and in due course, so will the Supreme Court.



###[Huffington Post Live: VIDEO](http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/tech-titans-mayday-pac-lawrence-lessig/538e413802a7602d01000266)
> Coverage on Professor Lessig's efforts, starts at 12:00



###[Sunlight Foundation Blog: National News Section](http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/06/05/today-in-opengov-652014/)
> The Mayday PAC, set up to fight the influence of big money in politics, has raised a lot of money from small donors...but it has also raised more than $1 million (and hopes to raise at least $5 million more) from a few large donors. The large donors, many of them tech entrepreneurs, are matching funds raised in smaller chunks. 



###[Connecticut Post Blog: Super PAC whose mission is to lessen the influence of big money in politics by targeting congressional candidates opposed to campaign finance reform](http://blog.ctnews.com/kantrowitz/2014/06/05/super-pac-whose-mission-is-to-lessen-the-influence-of-big-money-in-politics-by-targeting-congressional-candidates-opposed-to-campaign-finance-reform/)
> If successful, Mayday PAC would go from inception to a war chest of over $12 million in just 60 days. That money will then fund campaigns in five congressional districts yet to be announced, targeting candidates that oppose campaign finance reform. It is part of a two election cycle plan to hold candidates accountable to voters on the issue of money in politics and win a Congress committed to enacting campaign finance reform by 2016. If successful in the 2014 cycle, the effort would be expanded for the 2016 elections.

> This experimental new effort will show that regular people are deeply motivated to demand changes that loosen the grip of big money on politics and government. People “commit” by pledging a contribution anywhere between $5 and $10,000, and their commitment is collected only if the Mayday PAC reaches its fundraising target by its deadline.



###[Politico: Mayday PAC secures matching pledges](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/mayday-pac-secures-matching-pledges-107398.html?hp=l6)
> The PAC raised $1 million in grass-roots donations in its first 13 days in existence and has now set a $5 million target by July 4. If Mayday PAC reaches that goal, Lessig and McKinnon have lined up the support of a handful of wealthy donors — mostly from Silicon Valley — to kick in an additional $5 million in matching funds.

> If the renewed push is successful, the PAC would have a $12 million war chest for the 2014 cycle. Though that is a modest sum in the world of big-money politics, the PAC would invest in five targeted congressional races. The campaigns have yet to be announced or determined.



###[CrowdFund Insider: Super PAC Created to “End All SuperPACs” Launches Phase 2 after Meeting 1st Crowdfunding Goal](http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/06/41050-super-pac-created-to-end-all-superpacs-launches-phase-2-after-meeting-1st-crowdfunding-goal/)
> If you happen to care about things like non-rich people having a say in who holds federal office, you should really go make your pledge to Mayday right now. But since I suspect most readers are pretty skeptical at this point, let me take you through the completely hard-boiled, non-utopian case for supporting the project, which roughly amounts to the following: Mayday, or something like it, turns out to be our last best hope for reducing the massively outsized influence of the 1 percent over public policy. 

> I arrive at this conclusion by way of some simple armchair-Marxist analysis, which holds that no significant reform can happen unless some very powerful, very rich interest group decides it has a stake in it. Health care reform had the insurance companies; Wall Street reform had deep-pocketed financial institutions, who saw an opportunity to kneecap their less-regulated competitors.



###[Washington Post: Tech leaders back super PAC aimed at curbing big money in politics](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/06/04/tech-leaders-back-super-pac-aimed-at-curbing-big-money-in-politics/)
> A group of high-wattage technology entrepreneurs and investors have donated six-figure checks to a super PAC aimed at curtailing the influence of big money in politics, bringing new financial firepower to the fight over election spending.



###[The New Republic: The One Way to Harness Silicon Valley's Self-Interest for the Good of the Country](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117996/how-silicon-valley-can-bring-us-campaign-finance-reform)
> If you happen to care about things like non-rich people having a say in who holds federal office, you should really go make your pledge to Mayday right now. But since I suspect most readers are pretty skeptical at this point, let me take you through the completely hard-boiled, non-utopian case for supporting the project, which roughly amounts to the following: Mayday, or something like it, turns out to be our last best hope for reducing the massively outsized influence of the 1 percent over public policy. 

> I arrive at this conclusion by way of some simple armchair-Marxist analysis, which holds that no significant reform can happen unless some very powerful, very rich interest group decides it has a stake in it. Health care reform had the insurance companies; Wall Street reform had deep-pocketed financial institutions, who saw an opportunity to kneecap their less-regulated competitors.



###[PR Newswire: Crowd-Funded Super PAC Created to "End All SuperPACs" Launches Phase 2 after Meeting Initial Fundraising Goal](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crowd-funded-super-pac-created-to-end-all-superpacs-launches-phase-2-after-meeting-initial-fundraising-goal-261803491.html)
> "The influence of big money over our political process is worse than it's ever been, and it's evident from the complete dysfunction in Washington," said Professor Lawrence Lessig. "Mayday PAC's success will prove that there are enough people willing to invest in sending Congress the message that it is time for fundamental campaign finance reform." Mark McKinnon adds, "We want a government that works for all of us, not simply the wealthy who bankroll campaign contributions and Super PACs."

> This experimental new effort will show that regular people are deeply motivated to demand changes that loosen the grip of big money on politics and government. People "commit" by pledging a contribution anywhere between $5 and $10,000, and their commitment is collected only if the Mayday PAC reaches its fundraising target by its deadline.



###[Huffington Post: Tech Titans From Both Parties Get Behind Super PAC To End All Super PACs](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/04/mayday-pac-tech_n_5442230.html)
> The Mayday PAC, launched on May 1, announced a crowd funding plan to raise $12 million to back supporters of publicly financed elections in 2014. If people help raise $1 million, with contributions of $10,000 or less, in one month, Lessig said wealthy supporters would kick in another $1 million. The group raised its first $1 million by the middle of May.

> The big supporters providing the matching $1 million include LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder and president of Thiel Capital Peter Thiel, TED curator Chris Anderson, Union Square Ventures partners Brad Burnham and Fred Wilson, Women's Entrepreneurial Festival co-founder Joanne Wilson, and Schooner Capital founder Vin Ryan.


###[The Atlantic: A Real Step to Fix Democracy](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/a-real-step-to-fix-democracy/371898/)
> In January, Gallup found that Americans from across the political spectrum picked the failure of “government” as the top problem facing America today. The vast majority link that failure to the influence of money in politics. Yet more than 90 percent of us don’t see how that influence could be reduced. Washington won’t fix itself, so who else could fix it?

> It turns out the framers of our Constitution thought about this problem precisely. Two days before the Constitution was complete, they noticed a bug. In the version they were considering, only Congress could propose amendments to the Constitution. That led Virginia’s George Mason to ask, what if Congress itself was the problem?



###[Fast Company: Want Money Out Of Politics? Put Some Money Into Politics With Lawrence Lessig's Super PAC](http://www.fastcoexist.com/3031141/want-money-out-of-politics-put-some-money-into-politics-with-lawrence-lessigs-superpac)

> “In 2016, number one, there will be fewer fights that we have to have, because people will get on the right side of this issue just out of fear,” Lessig says. “And number two, we’ll have a whole bunch of people more interested in investing, because they see a potential return here.”

> “[Vouchers] would radically change the business model of fundraising overnight,” Lessig says. “You would not have candidates spending their time talking to the tiniest fraction of the 1%. They’d be thinking about the ways to attract a wide range of contributions from everybody who has a voucher.”


###[LA Times: Harvard professor's 'super PAC' aims to end power of 'super PACs'](http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-harvard-professor-super-pac-big-money-politics-20140523-story.html)
>  Is it possible to create a "super PAC" that would end the power of super PACs by drawing enough Americans into the system to limit the influence of big money in politics? And is it possible to get voters excited about a subject as dry as campaign finance?  Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig is leading a crusade to answer both those questions with a yes.

>  If the Mayday PAC is able to take out five members of Congress this cycle “who are on the wrong side of this issue,” Lessig said, “then when 2016 comes around, magically a whole bunch of members of Congress would be on the right side of this issue, and we would have a narrower range of people that we would have to be going after, and we would have very good data



###[The Huffington Post: The Super PAC To End All Super PACs Gets Off To A Super Start](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/15/mayone-lawrence-lessig_n_5333020.html)

> WASHINGTON -- On May 1, Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig launched what he calls
  a "super PAC to end all super PACs."  Lessig, one of a new breed of campaign
  finance reformers, wants to change the corrupted system by which politicians
  now raise money for their campaigns.

> The irony is to get money out of politics, reformers must raise money of their own.
  On that measure, Lessig's new     organization has gotten off to a super start.



### [Washington Post Opinions: Matt Miller: “A ‘money bomb’ for 2016″](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/matt-miller-a-money-bomb-for-2016/2013/05/29/c01d0e88-c85c-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html)


> Just when you were fed up with our petty, craven politics and were ready to
  write off the next few years as a circus of filibusters, gridlock and
  investigations, comes an idea so simple yet subversive that it offers a
  glorious ray of hope.

> Call it [Lawrence Lessig's](http://www.lessig.org/) "money bomb."  It’s an
  ingenious plan to make the drive for small-dollar publicly funded elections a
  central issue in 2016. With a little luck, the Harvard law professor’s idea
  could help save the republic.



### [Moyers & Company: "Lawrence Lessig Has a 'Moonshot' Plan to Halt Our Slide Toward Plutocracy"](http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/25/lawrence-lessig-has-a-moonshot-plan-to-halt-our-slide-toward-plutocracy/)

> Harvard’s Lawrence Lessig, the crusader for campaign finance reform, feels
  that his fellow reformers don’t think big or boldly enough to inspire the kind
  of grassroots campaign that might break elite donors’ stranglehold on
  America’s political system.

> In a recent piece in [*The
  Atlantic*](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/campaign-finance-and-the-nihilist-politics-of-resignation/360437/),
  Lessig argues that public cynicism about the prospect of deep reform actually
  working is the only thing keeping widespread outrage at our slide toward
  plutocracy in check. And he thinks that only a “moonshot” campaign — an
  ambitious, collective, national effort “unlike anything they’ve seen before” —
  can “crack this cynicism” and usher in a more democratic system.



### <a href="http://time.com/84556/lawrence-lessig-superpac/" target="_blank">Time: Campaign Finance Reformer Launches Super PAC to End Super PACs</a>

> Mayday PAC was already 8 percent of the way toward its goal by Thursday
  afternoon with more than $75,000 pledged and nearly 31 days left to reach its
  target.

> To say Mayday PAC faces an uphill fight is an understatement. Proponents of
  serious campaign finance reform face strong opponents in both parties, and the
  Supreme Court and lower courts have issued rulings in recent years striking
  down or throwing into doubt a wide array of restrictions on political
  spending.

> If the idea behind Mayday PAC sounds absurd, that’s by design. Cynicism and
  defeatism about government run so deep through American politics, Lessig
  believes, that the only way to “crack this cynicism” is with an idea so
  exceedingly ambitious—a “moonshoot,” he calls it—that people might be roused
  to get behind it.

> “We must show Americans something unlike anything they’ve seen before,”
  Lessig&nbsp;<a style="color: #0c97d2;"
  href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/campaign-finance-and-the-nihilist-politics-of-resignation/360437/">writes</a>.



### <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/05/01/3433006/mayday-super-pac-launches-to-end-super-pacs/" target="_blank">ThinkProgress: Anti-Dark Money Activist Lawrence Lessig Launches A Super PAC To End Super PACs</a>

> <a
  href="http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf"
  target="_blank">Recent studies</a> have found that wealthy Americans’
  influence over politics has grown significantly over the past few
  decades. Just a few hours after the launch, the Super PAC had raised nearly
  $50,000 — 5 percent of its $1 million goal.



### <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/88825/there-s-a-new-super-pac-to-end-all-super-pacs-and-it-could-radically-change-politics?utm_source=policymicTWTR&amp;utm_medium=main&amp;utm_campaign=social" target="_blank">PolicyMic: There’s a New “Super PAC to End All Super PACs” — And It Could Radically Change Politics</a>

> **So far, it’s working.** In just a few days, with hardly any publicity,
  they’ve managed to raise over $350,000 dollars with a short-term goal of $1
  million.



### <a href="http://on.msnbc.com/1iospFz">MSNBC: Ronan Farrow Daily, 5/06/2014</a>

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="http://on.msnbc.com/1iospFz"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10167" src="../images/msnbc.png" alt="msnbc" width="640" height="472"></a></p>

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### <a href="http://www.upworthy.com/a-brilliant-plan-to-give-billionaires-who-try-to-buy-us-elections-a-taste-of-their-own-medicine?c=fea" target="_blank">Upworthy:&nbsp;A Brilliant Plan To Give Billionaires Who Try To Buy U.S. Elections A Taste Of Their Own Medicine</a>

> How bad has the money-in-politics situation gotten? A new study by researchers
  at Princeton and Northwestern universities found that, and I’m quoting
  directly here: “When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of
  organized interest groups are controlled for,&nbsp;<em>the preferences of the
  average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically
  non-significant impact</em>&nbsp;upon public policy.”



### <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/09/_n_5295544.html" target="_blank">Huffington Post:&nbsp;A Brilliant Plan To Give Billionaires Who Try To Buy U.S. Elections A Taste Of Their Own Medicine</a>



### <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4uRSMTCJxw" target="_blank">WGBH News/Greater Boston: Lawrence Lessig’s New Approach to Campaign Finance Reform</a>

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