Further Reading Lawrence Lessig exploring US presidency bid as a Democrat

Lawrence Lessig , one of the country’s foremost tech legal scholars, announced Saturday that he would be making a key modification to his quixotic campaign for president

If elected, the Harvard Law professor would plan to stay on as president—rather than resign immediately (as he had previously promised) after the passage of his as-yet-undrafted Citizen Equality Act. The bill would be designed to increase voting access, end partisan gerrymandering, and reform campaign finance, among other reforms.

Why the change?

In an essay published Saturday in The Atlantic, Lessig describes a survey conducted on his behalf by Drew Westen, a psychology professor at Emory University. (Lessig further dubs him "the Democrats’ most influential messaging guru.")

As Lessig writes:

The resignation idea was a total bust. No one liked it. At all. But the idea of an outsider making fundamental reform the central issue of the campaign blew the race apart. … If the Democrats won’t take seriously a candidate with a viable, credible, and professionally managed campaign just because it includes a promise to step aside once the work is done, then fine. You win. I drop that promise. I am running for president. I am running with the purpose of restoring this democracy. I will make that objective primary. I will do everything possible to make it happen first, by working with Congress to pass fundamental reform first. After we pass that reform, I will remain as president to make sure the reforms stick. I will work with Congress to assure they are implemented. I will defend them against legislative or legal attack.

Last month, Lessig told Ars: "A regular president cannot take on Congress. It will take a president with a super-mandate. That’s what the referendum presidency is meant to achieve."