Lawrence Lessig's Mayday PAC aims to drive the money-changers out of the temple of American politics by fighting fire with fire. Or something.
Mayday is Lessig's very own SuperPAC, funded half by grassroots liberals and other non-Republicans, with matching funds from more traditional dark-money billionaire donors. It aims to end the reign of SuperPACs by arm-twisting 2014 congressional candidates, brandishing its own Big Money to encourage them to say something nice about campaign finance reform or else:
If a candidate for Congress wants to be inoculated from being on our target list, there is an easy way to do so: get on the right side of reform. Pledge to support one or more of the fundamental reforms listed at reform.toTranslation: Say, dis here's a nice little campaign ya's got here...Geez, it'd sure be too bad if sumptin was tuh, ya know, happen to it....
It's a clever approach (critics say too clever by half) to a noble goal most all Americans support: getting the pernicious corrupting influence of Big Money out of politics, in order to clear the way for real reforms. But in keeping with Mayday's dependence on a motley assortment of billionaires on both the Left and the Right, such as wired right-wing libertarian Peter Thiel (donates to Paul Ryan, Club For Growth, etc.) and patrician old-school liberal Vincent Ryan (donates to Sherrod Brown, League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, etc.), Mayday is forced to remain silent with regard to just what kind of reforms America should pursue once plutocratic money is out of the picture. It officially doesn't care. Just as Nancy Reagan sternly refused to be distracted from her Just Say No message with the famed malaprop, "I'm just here for the drugs," so too Mayday is just here for teh campaign finance reform.
Such single-mindedness is often commendable, but what happens when it meets a scoundrel who is only too happy to oblige it? In Mayday's case, what happens is New Hampshire crackpot Republican candidate for the Senate, Jim Rubens.