Change Congress
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| Formation | 2008 |
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| Website | www.change-congress.org |
Change Congress is an American organization that aims to end perceived corruption in the United States Congress by reducing what it considers the distorted influence of money in that legislative body. Founded by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi, Change Congress aims to organize citizens to push candidates to make commitments on the following issues: take no money from lobbyists or PACs, vote to end earmarks, support publicly financed campaigns, and support reform to increase congressional transparency. Since January 9, 2009, Change Congress has been focusing its efforts on promoting citizen-funded elections, mainly through its Donor Strike campaign and support for the Fair Elections Now Act.
Change Congress was officially launched on March 20, 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. when Lessig held a press conference sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation.
Lessig had considered a run for Congress in 2008 under the Draft Lessig movement, but decided against it. An exploratory committee and a private pollster determined that there was "no possible way" for Lessig to defeat Jackie Speier, and that Lessig would lose in a "big way". Lessig conveyed that while he did not fear losing, he did fear that losing would be harmful to effectively displaying the importance of the Change Congress movement.
Change Congress's main aim is what he sees as "institutional corruption" in Congress, as opposed to cases of personal financial corruption and bribery, whereby the influence of money has an uneven, distracting, and detrimental pull on the United States Congress.
On November 16, 2011, the Change Congress, Fix Congress First, and Rootstrikers projects became part of the United Republic organization.
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