Major candidates for national and statewide offices will continue to escalate their fundraising and spending just to stay competitive. In the 1970s, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Congress sought to prevent big money from influencing elections. Legislation was passed to limit contributions from individuals and special interests. With this election cycle, those campaign-financing reforms are as useless as a squirt pistol in a forest fire. Even time-honored prohibitions, such as bans on donations by corporations, are mere technicalities easily skirted.
Individuals can also spend as much as they like on a pet cause.
Call it free speech if you like, but it's more than the vast majority of Americans can afford. But the loopholes are so gaping that both major parties were able to use outside money to spend tens of millions more on their candidates' behalf. Worse, no signs of reform are in sight. Sure, Congress makes an occasional ado about campaign-finance reform legislation, but nothing ever gets through both houses. Whether it's the Democrats or the Republicans, the party in power likes things the way they are.