Most intriguing possible Republican presidential candidate

flpoljunkie

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Fri Mar-04-11 01:41 PM
Original message

Most intriguing possible Republican presidential candidate

Edited on Fri Mar-04-11 01:42 PM by flpoljunkie

(Wish President Obama was the presidential candidate announcing this--instead of a former blue dog Democrat turned Republican governor of Louisiana.)

On the Significance of the Roemer Announcement

Lawrence Lessig
Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Posted: March 3, 2011 09:18 PM

On the Significance of the Roemer Announcement

Mark McKinnon -- the Republican campaign consultant who helped create George W. Bush, and who for a time ran John McCain's campaign -- and I don't agree about much. We do agree about the need for fundamental reform of the way campaigns are funded. About a year ago, I said to McKinnon that "the only way we win this issue is if a Republican makes it his." "There's only one Republican," he said to me, "who could do that credibly, and he is not running."

On Thursday, Buddy Roemer proved McKinnon wrong. In an event in Baton Rouge, Roemer announced that he was launching an exploratory committee to consider a run for the presidency. He also announced a campaign different from the campaign of every other candidate. A president, Roemer told his audience, "must be free to lead" -- free of commitments to anything save the principles he commits to. So Roemer's campaign will take no PAC money. It will take no more than $100 in contributions from any individual. And everyone who contributes anything regardless of how small will be disclosed. His will be the first true small dollar campaign for the presidency, and the first that is truly transparent. The single message he will preach is that (practically) every single problem that we as Americans face can be tied to the corrupting influence of money in politics. His success will turn on how powerfully he can prove that claim.

This is not the first time Buddy Roemer has run a campaign like this. When he was elected governor in Louisiana in 1987, there were no limits on contributions at all. Corporations as well as individuals could give as much to a campaign as they wanted, and those contributions were not disclosed. Roemer ran a campaign similar to the one he has announced for president -- limiting the size and the source of the contributions he would take, and disclosing the name of every single contributor. He beat an incumbent (and later to be convicted for corruption) governor and changed the character of the governorship in Louisiana ever since.

I have no clue whether Roemer has a shot in what will certainly be an overcrowded Republican field. The odds are certainly against him. But for Republicans and Democrats alike (not to mention the Republic), let's hope he has. For by focusing his campaign so clearly on money, Roemer will give America a chance to act on what three quarters of us already believe -- that money buys results in our government, and that that corruption must be stopped if our government is to be controlled.

Pundits will sneer at this. Americans believe their government is corrupt, they will say, but Americans don't put fixing that corruption anywhere near the top of their political wish lists.

http://www.buddyroemer.com/