This Friday, Jan. 24, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig and some friends are scheduled to arrive in Nashua for a birthday party.

They’re coming all the way from Dixville Notch in the state’s North Country, part of a campaign to make us examine the influence of money in politics.

Oh, and did we mention that they’re coming on foot?

Yup, that’s how they roll.

The New Hampshire Rebellion, as it’s called, seeks to draw attention to the way money corrupts our political system, especially in Washington. The walk started on Jan. 11 in Dixville Notch. You know the place – it’s where they cast the first ballots in the New Hampshire Primary every four years.

The walk – 185 miles – is expected to finish up at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Lowell Street in Nashua on Friday with a celebration to mark what would have been the 104th birthday of the late Granite State resident Doris Haddock, who was better known as “Granny D” when she walked across the country 15 years ago to call attention to the corrosive influence of money in politics. She was 88 at the time.

The New Hampshire Rebellion is kind of like a walk-a-thon, except organizers aren’t trying to raise money, they’re trying to raise consciousness. Specifically, that of New Hampshire voters who participate in the presidential primary. They want us to turn up the heat on politicians to get the money out of politics.

As they describe the movement on their website, Rootstrikers: “We, citizens of the United States, respectfully ask the people of New Hampshire to use your extraordinary power to maximal effect – by forcing every presidential candidate to answer one critical question: How are you going to end the system of corruption in Washington?”

If you’re cynical about government and think that our politicians are bought off by the super-rich and special interests, this may be the cause for you. If you think our representatives should put the interests of the country before their own re-election, you may want to get in on this.

Our country is $17 trillion in debt and Republicans and Democrats barely talk to each other, much less work together to fix the problems that ail this country.

Yet, among the issues that haven’t been addressed in Congress – and aren’t likely to before the November election – are immigration reform, sensible gun laws, closing loopholes in the tax code that benefit those same super-wealthy corporate contributors, and programs to help the young, poor, elderly and disenfranchised.

The only thing they seem to agree on is that they are the only ones worthy of re-election and they deserve the largesse that comes their way.

What’s that, you say? They just passed a budget this week?

Sure they did – one laden with billions of dollars in pork spending to benefit all manner of entities that have ponied up campaign contributions and left the commoner, for the most part, on the outside looking in.

The fundamental question, as Lessig tweeted last week, boils down to this: “Can the public have a seat at the table without paying the campaign-contribution tax?”

It’s not just somebody else’s problem, either. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is up for re-election this year. She raised more than $1 million in re-election cash in the last quarter alone, and more than $4 million in 2013. She didn’t get it standing on a street corner rattling a tin cup. She’s beholden to somebody, as is Scott Brown or whoever the Republicans decide to run against her. It’s the way the game is played. Money buys access and access begets influence.

We applaud Lessig and his followers for starting the New Hampshire Rebellion. We just hope the finish line in Nashua represents more than merely the end of a two-week walk. We hope it marks the beginning of a longer march to justice.

Newsletter