This was the election we learned that money doesn't just talk, it screams. Both political parties sunk to new lows in financial sleaziness. We learned that if you want to handicap an American election all you have to do is count the money. This year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, in more than 90 percent of the House races and 80 percent of the Senate races the candidate with the most money won. And the more they had to beg, the more vulnerable they became to those who want something in return for their money.
Few candidates raise much money from the little guy.
Eighty percent of the campaign money raised in 1994 came from large individual contributors or PACs. This year the anger Americans feel about the corrosive effects of money on democracy made itself felt at the ballot box. By a vote of 59 to 41 percent, residents of Maine endorsed the Clean Election Act which limits campaign contributions and spending and provides for public financing of state elections. In California, Colorado and Arkansas more modest campaign finance measures also triumphed. If politicians listened to those who put them in office, their first congressional action would not be to set up a commission to study Medicare nor to develop strategies to further reduce the deficit.