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 Forming a Super Political Action Committee (PAC) called Mayday, the
executives hope to raise $12 million by the midterm elections in
November in hopes of supporting candidates who are committed to
changing how elections are financed.
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak joined the campaign late last week,
alongside Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson; Paypal cofounder and
libertarian activist Peter Thiel; and LinkedIn cofounder Reid
Hoffmann.
Their approach - using big money to fight big money - may seem odd,
but the organizers note on the campaign website that they "embrace
the irony."
"You have to work with the system you've got," said Harvard law
professor Lawrence Lessig, who along with Republican strategist Mark
McKinnon came up with the idea to form a Super PAC. "I don't think
it makes sense to back out to play the game."
The organizers plan to use the funds to support five political
candidates who will push for campaign finance reform. Lessig said he
is considering both Democrats and Republicans to ensure the effort
crosses party lines.
As a Super PAC, Mayday can raise unlimited amounts of money to
bankroll political campaigns or causes so long as it operates
independently of the candidates they support.
The organizers have called Mayday "the Super PAC to end all Super
PACs"
Lessig, a founding board member of Creative Commons and former board
member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Reuters the
objective is to find a way to change the way that elections are
funded. In its first two weeks, the imitative garnered $1 million
from grassroots donations.
In addition, Thiel and Hoffmann, venture capitalists Brad Burnham
and Fred and Joanne Wilson, and Chris Anderson, organizer of the TED
conference, agreed to donate $1 million apiece. Lessig hopes to
raise an additional $5 million by July 4.
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If successful, Mayday will launch a much larger campaign in 2016 to
reverse laws that have granted undue political influence to
corporations.
According to Lessig, the goals for the campaign are "narrow." Mayday
is not a veiled effort to advance the tech agenda, he repeatedly
stressed.
"If we're successful, some of our donors will have less influence
than they do now, personally and through their corporations," he
added. "They are spending money to reduce their political
influence."
This wouldn't be the first attempt to curb the explosion of outside
spending. A similar effort, dubbed Soros’ Friends of Democracy, is
being run by Jonathan Soros, son of billionaire financier George
Soros.
“Until we fix the root problem – the big money problem – we’re going
to keep dealing with attack after attack on a free, open and
innovative Internet," Wozniak said in a video to promote the Mayday
campaign.
(Reporting By Christina Farr; Editing by Ken Wills)
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