Thanks for doing this and everything else to save the promise of democracy.
[I am part of Root Strikers in Albany and the MOP Democracy Project]
Will your "money bomb" idea include a ground campaign (face to face interactions with voters) or only an air campaign (media advertising and mailers)? The reason I'm asking is because as an undergraduate, nine years ago, I rounded up a group of my friends to go lobby for Clean Elections (Maine style campaign-finance reform pre Bennett). We got all dressed up and hit the road for our capital: Albany, NY. Still believing we lived in some semblance of a democracy we were very excited to make rational arguments to try to persuade the politicians to support this exceedingly popular and simultaneously revolutionary reform.
And then reality set in as the politician basically laughed in our faces, he was like: "you kids want to get money out of politics isn't that nice, good for you, I love seeing young people involved, keep fighting!" And then proceeded to not support the legislation.
After this wake up call it all made perfect sense to us. Of course incumbent politicians don't want to support legislation that will provide adequate funding for potential challengers. They're IN office because they probably CAN raise more money than the next guy; the last thing they want is well-funded challengers aka more competitive elections.
From that point onward our small group of 18-23 yr olds vowed to never talk to another politician about getting money out of politics until we had the power to unseat them. We started going door-to-door in his district building up a money out of politics (MOP) voter bloc, a list of voters who said they cared deeply about MOP and wanted to know where candidates in their district stood on MOP before they voted each election.
We went to festivals, farmers markets, Door by door, block by block until the number of people in our MOP voter bloc was comparable to the margin of victory. Finally, in 2008, we were able to unseat that politician and replaced him with a candidate who supported clean elections! (By 12 votes) Buoyed by this success we did it successfully again in a tight state senate race in Queens in 2010 with the election of state senator Tony Avella ( by 500 votes) and then again in 2012 with the election of Cecelia Tkacyk (by 18 votes).
All this to say, that with extremely limited resources, and an all volunteer effort, a group of kids have nearly swung the balance of power in Albany in favor of getting money out of politics using ground campaign tactics. (Yes I realize causation is tricky when looking at election results, but at the very least we were one of many "but for" causes of those three upsets given the size of MOP Voter Bloc in those districts.)
Indeed, the political science literature on the matter shows that there is no more effective means of persuasion in elections than face-to-face communications, yet well funded MOP heroes like Soros and Eldridge, still go for what's easy: the big media buys.
Further, at the end of each election cycle we were left with an asset: a huge list that could be used for direct actions, fundraising and most importantly: for future elections. If we lost, ok, well we have a huge head start for the next election to double or triple the MOP Voter Bloc. If we win, we have the power to hold that politician accountable with their constituents.
The big media buys are great, while they last, but then 2 years later you're left with vague impressions on the minds of voters in the united states of amnesia. Its a short term vs long term investment decision and let’s be honest with ourselves, and use that honesty to create a strategic advantage: meaningful campaign finance reform is not passing in the short term. If this is going to pass we need a movement not just a media blitz.
Don't get me wrong, there's a place for air campaigns as well, but I think the current ratio of ground to air campaign is malapportioned and would encourage you to consider launching a ground campaign, as well.
democracymatt2 karma
Hello Professor Lessig,
Thanks for doing this and everything else to save the promise of democracy.
[I am part of Root Strikers in Albany and the MOP Democracy Project]
Will your "money bomb" idea include a ground campaign (face to face interactions with voters) or only an air campaign (media advertising and mailers)? The reason I'm asking is because as an undergraduate, nine years ago, I rounded up a group of my friends to go lobby for Clean Elections (Maine style campaign-finance reform pre Bennett). We got all dressed up and hit the road for our capital: Albany, NY. Still believing we lived in some semblance of a democracy we were very excited to make rational arguments to try to persuade the politicians to support this exceedingly popular and simultaneously revolutionary reform.
And then reality set in as the politician basically laughed in our faces, he was like: "you kids want to get money out of politics isn't that nice, good for you, I love seeing young people involved, keep fighting!" And then proceeded to not support the legislation.
After this wake up call it all made perfect sense to us. Of course incumbent politicians don't want to support legislation that will provide adequate funding for potential challengers. They're IN office because they probably CAN raise more money than the next guy; the last thing they want is well-funded challengers aka more competitive elections.
From that point onward our small group of 18-23 yr olds vowed to never talk to another politician about getting money out of politics until we had the power to unseat them. We started going door-to-door in his district building up a money out of politics (MOP) voter bloc, a list of voters who said they cared deeply about MOP and wanted to know where candidates in their district stood on MOP before they voted each election.
We went to festivals, farmers markets, Door by door, block by block until the number of people in our MOP voter bloc was comparable to the margin of victory. Finally, in 2008, we were able to unseat that politician and replaced him with a candidate who supported clean elections! (By 12 votes) Buoyed by this success we did it successfully again in a tight state senate race in Queens in 2010 with the election of state senator Tony Avella ( by 500 votes) and then again in 2012 with the election of Cecelia Tkacyk (by 18 votes).
All this to say, that with extremely limited resources, and an all volunteer effort, a group of kids have nearly swung the balance of power in Albany in favor of getting money out of politics using ground campaign tactics. (Yes I realize causation is tricky when looking at election results, but at the very least we were one of many "but for" causes of those three upsets given the size of MOP Voter Bloc in those districts.)
Indeed, the political science literature on the matter shows that there is no more effective means of persuasion in elections than face-to-face communications, yet well funded MOP heroes like Soros and Eldridge, still go for what's easy: the big media buys. Further, at the end of each election cycle we were left with an asset: a huge list that could be used for direct actions, fundraising and most importantly: for future elections. If we lost, ok, well we have a huge head start for the next election to double or triple the MOP Voter Bloc. If we win, we have the power to hold that politician accountable with their constituents.
The big media buys are great, while they last, but then 2 years later you're left with vague impressions on the minds of voters in the united states of amnesia. Its a short term vs long term investment decision and let’s be honest with ourselves, and use that honesty to create a strategic advantage: meaningful campaign finance reform is not passing in the short term. If this is going to pass we need a movement not just a media blitz. Don't get me wrong, there's a place for air campaigns as well, but I think the current ratio of ground to air campaign is malapportioned and would encourage you to consider launching a ground campaign, as well.
So what do ya say?
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