Harvard Law School professor Lawrence “Larry” Lessig’s Mayday Super PAC announced this week that it met its preliminary crowdfunding goal of $1 million ahead of schedule.
As a result, Mayday PAC has now released the names of a handful of ultra-wealthy supporters who will match the numerous smaller monetary donations gathered through crowdfunding with a few huge contributions.
Most of Lessig’s filthy rich patrons lean far left politically — judging from their past political donations.
In May, Lessig put a video on YouTube publicizing his bizarro anti-super PAC super PAC and explaining that his goal is to prevent all other Super PACS – except his – from influencing elections. (RELATED: Harvard Prof Begs For Big Money For Super PAC To Fight BIG MONEY In Politics)
Much like Lessig, Lessig complains in the video, “politicians still spend endless time raising money.”
He is also bothered by the fact that politicians raise money “from the tiniest fraction of the ‘one percent.'”
Consequently, the left-leaning Harvard professor has raised a slew of big money from the tiniest fraction of the “one percent” using the Super PAC as a vehicle. Super PACs are able to solicit limitless amounts of cash from loaded individuals as well as corporations and unions.
In a press release obtained by The Daily Caller, Mayday PAC heralded the names of its mega-rich donors.
One of the biggest single donors is private investment magnate Vin Ryan of Schooner Capital, according to Roll Call. Ryan will plunk down $250,000 in Lessig’s effort to suppress the political speech of all other Super PACs except his own.
According to Campaignmoney.com, Ryan’s past forays into politics include $500,000 in donations to Friends of Democracy, a super PAC which supports strict limits on money spent on political speech.
Jonathan Soros, a son of Hungarian-born, leftist financier George Soros, co-founded Friends of Democracy, notes The Washington Post.
Silicon Valley investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman pledged $150,000 to Lessig’s Mayday PAC.
Hoffman is no stranger to left-liberal causes. During the 2012 election cycle, reports Business Insider, he gave a total of $43,000 to various Democrats including $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee.
Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, is also generously giving Mayday PAC $150,000. Thiel is a political outlier among Lessig’s donors. In the past, he has give a grand total of $2.6 million to Ron Paul’s Endorse Liberty Super PAC. He also bestowed $1 million on the conservative Club for Growth Super PAC.
Venture capitalist Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures (a $650 million firm) conferred $100,000 on Mayday PAC. Burnham’s past contributions include $2,300 to President Barack Obama in 2008 and $32,500 to other Democratic causes, according to Campaignmoney.com.
Fred Wilson, also of Union Square Ventures, and his wife, Joanne Wilson, who styles herself as an angel investor, a blogger and a festival founder, also ponied up $100,000. According to the database Little Sis and Campaignmoney.com, the pair has coughed up tens of thousands of dollars for Democrats including at least $9,200 for Claire McCaskill and $4,800 for Chuck Schumer.
Other lavish, fancypants rich people who have contributed to Lessig’s anti-big money Super PAC include TED curator Chris Anderson and venture energy capitalist David Milner of NuGen Capital.
The press release from Mayday PAC suggests that the list of uber-rich donors who want to drastically restrict other people from using money to affect politics may not be complete.
Mayday PAC now seeks to generate a political war chest of more than $12 million, which it will spend in the 2014 elections in an attempt to limit the political spending of everyone else but Mayday PAC.
The ambitious goal is to enact campaign finance reform by 2016.
Specifically, Mayday PAC will give its money to political operatives.
“The money raised is turned over to professional campaigners, who will craft interventions in targeted districts to make fundamental reform the issue in that campaign — and to make the reform candidate the winner,” Lessig said in May.
“The influence of big money over our political process is worse than it’s ever been, and it’s evident from the complete dysfunction in Washington,” the Harvard professor lectured in a recent press release.
In his YouTube video, Lessig swore that he has no agenda other than suppressing the political speech of others — except that he detests “a healthcare system that costs too much and does too little” and he believes “climate change remains totally unaddressed.” And a bunch of other stuff.
Among Lessig’s advisers on the Mayday PAC project is Bill Burton, a former Obama White House aide. Burton is the former head of a large super PAC that supported the 2012 reelection campaign for President Obama.
In 2012, Obama’s reelection campaign spent over $1.1 billion.
In 2008, Obama’s campaign spent over $760 million — or nearly $11 per vote received.
In both campaigns, Obama and his advisers refused matching federal funds.
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