Lessig: I'm running for president

The Democrats have a sixth presidential candidate: Lawrence Lessig.

The outspoken Harvard Law School professor who's been an advocate of campaign finance reform, told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that he's formally running for president.


And he said he's running on comprehensive campaign finance and redistricting reform.

"We have to recognize we have a government that does not work," Lessig said. "This stalemate, partisan platform of American politics in Washington right now doesn't work. And we have to find a way to elevate the debate to focus on the changes that would actually get us a government that could work again, that is not captured by the tiniest fraction of the 1 percent."

This isn't Lessig's first foray into electoral politics. Last year, he raised $10 million for a super PAC dedicated to backing candidates who support campaign finance reform, but came away with little to show for it.

Undeterred, he launched a presidential exploratory committee earlier this year and said he'd run if he could raise at least $1 million, a goal he's met. The next hurdle: attracting enough support to make into the Democratic presidential debates.

If elected president, Lessig says he'd resign as soon as he signed campaign finance and election reform legislation — and hand over power to his vice president.

"The vice president has to be consistent with the values of the Democratic Party," Lessig told Stephanopoulos when asked who he might pick for his running mate, "and I'm very much committed to having a candidate who could excite the Democratic base."

A poll on Lessig's campaign website allows supporters to vote on whom he should pick. Among the options: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), popular astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart and Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as every other announced Democratic presidential candidate except Lincoln Chafee.