Furthermore, he doesn't even need the voters. After the first election, most campaign money is raised in Washington or the state capitols in the case of legislators. It's not raised back home. The people can be more or less ignored until it's time to bombard them with TV ads again. The press has become so sorry that the people will have no idea what their politician has been doing, except the good things he tells them he has done.
People are vulnerable to slick ads.
But make candidates dependent on winning delegates at party conventions, and you'll empower the people again. An officeholder who can't run for re-election until he wins his party's support at another convention is flat not going to ignore the people the way officeholders do now. After all, they're the ones who slurp up most of the campaign dollars. I've never known any corporation that advocated reducing its own revenues. As for those smoke-filled rooms, I suggest folks find a copy of Lincoln Steffens' autobiography.