Lessig on Super Pac crusade: 'one very important ally has been Donald Trump'

Tom McCarthy in New York
Tuesday 27 October 2015 11.00 GMT

When Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard professor running for the Democratic presidential nomination, scans the Republican field, he sees one obvious ally: Donald Trump.

Trump-Lessig might not be the most natural political pairing of the 2016 cycle. But no other Republican, Lessig said in a phone interview with the Guardian, has been so outspoken on the issue that Lessig has made his own: campaign finance reform.

Lessig has mounted his outsider’s campaign on the argument that corporations and private individuals should not be able to sink limitless money into political campaigns. The practice creates conflicts of interest for elected officials and prevents the work of the people from getting done, Lessig says.

Which is also what Trump has been saying, to a very different audience. Lessig recognized the real estate mogul for the effort when asked whom he sees as a potential partner in a bipartisan effort to pass new campaign finance laws.

“One very important ally has been Donald Trump, who has opened up this issue for Republicans in a way which nobody imagined it was going to be developed,” Lessig said. “He’s made it possible for Republicans to begin to identify this issue in exactly the same way (as Democrats).”

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