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The most important anti-corruption candidate in America

Lessig — 2014-08-13

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Will you support the most important anti-corruption candidate in America today?

Friend,

Your Mayday PAC is focused on the task of electing a Congress committed to fundamental reform by 2016. I am incredibly excited about the progress we have made so far, and we are keenly focused on making this year a successful first step to that critical goal.

But I’m writing today to ask you to support someone who I believe is the most important anti-corruption candidate in any race in America today — Zephyr Teachout, running for Governor in New York.

This is a one time ask: I won’t ask you again and this is the only person not running for Congress that I will ask you to support. But I wouldn’t make an exception to our “Congress-only” rule if this weren’t important. And this race is critically important.

Zephyr is running in the Democratic Primary for governor. She is running against Andrew Cuomo — a man who ran for governor on an anti-corruption platform, but who has now made a mockery of our cause. Failing to deliver on his promise to change the way elections are funded in New York was bad enough. But now we have learned that he corruptly influenced his own anti-corruption commission to protect his friends from criticism or embarrassment.[1]

The story in The Times was bad enough. Cuomo’s response was worse — almost Nixonian: There was nothing corrupt, he said, about him interfering with “his" “independent” (as he called it) anti-corruption commission because the commission worked for him. He was free, Cuomo argued, to tell the world it was “independent,” explicitly saying it was free to investigate anyone, while secretly telling the commission to stay away from leads that might embarrass him.

That was Nixon’s argument when he told the Watergate special prosecutor to withdraw his demand for the tapes that eventually brought down his administration. It was wrong then. It is wrong now. It shows a stunning blindness to the role of a leader — certainly a self-proclaimed leader of the anti-corruption cause.

I have known Zephyr for more than a decade. I relied on her scholarship in my own book, Republic, Lost, and I have used her analysis again and again in my talks. She is a tireless fighter for better government. She would make an outstanding governor. And she will stop at nothing to end the corruption in New York government — starting at the very top.

Zephyr needs our help now. The governor has tried to keep her off the ballot by arguing first that the 45,000 signatures she turned in were not enough (state law requires 15,000). Then his lawyers said she wasn’t a resident — basically because she made too many trips to visit her parents in Vermont. A judge has now ruled against the Governor, but he has vowed to appeal the decision. The New York Times has criticized him for his “political bullying” and urged him to take seriously a serious candidate challenging him in a primary.[2]

The experts say it will be tough to beat Cuomo. But I remember being told how tough it was going to be to raise $1M in 30 days, and then $5M in the next 30 days. That experience taught me one thing: If you give America a plan for fixing their corrupt government, they’ll step up to do it.

Zephyr is the New York plan. She has exactly the right passion and courage. And we need to support her — as Democrats, if you’re a Democrat, because our party should be better than Andrew Cuomo. And as an American, if you’re an American, because we must take this stand against the cynical abuse of a movement that you have done so much to support.

Just this once: Please click here to be directed to Zephyr’s donation page. We won’t be collecting the money. We won’t be waging a New York campaign. But we want to do whatever we can to support the most important anti-corruption candidate in the nation.

Please do whatever you can.

-Lessig

[1] The New York Times,Cuomo’s Office Hobbled Ethics Inquiries by Moreland Commission, July 23, 2014

[2] The New York Times, Gov. Cuomo Should Welcome Zephyr Teachout, August 11, 2014</span>


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