Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and freedom-of-information advocate who coined the phrase "net neutrality" back in 2003, lost his bid to become the next lieutenant governor of New York state tonight. According to the Associated Press, Kathy Hocul, a former Republican Congressman and Wu's rival in the Democratic primary for the lieutenant governorship, drew over 60 percent of the tallied vote at the time of this post's publication. The candidate at the top of Wu's ticket, Zephyr Teachout, also lost her bid to replace sitting New York state governor Andrew Cuomo as the Democratic nominee in the upcoming November 4th general election.

Teachout and Wu ran on an expressly tech-friendly platform that would have sought to block the Comcast takeover of Time Warner Cable (a New York-based company), and would have made net neutrality state law. Still, Teachout and Wu outperformed projections and may have acted as spoilers for Cuomo's speculated aims at higher office, including a 2016 presidential run. Alternate political futures may await them.