Politics today is a lot more expensive. It is what drives political campaigns. It is a ridiculous situation, but it is true. And if the incumbent loses, they immediately give to the winner to retire his or her campaign debt. Indeed, many, if not most, politicians spend a substantial amount of their time in office raising money for the next reelection campaign.
Money makes an absolute difference in electoral politics.
The environmental movement will never be able to come remotely close to matching the corporations and their auxiliaries dollar for dollar in influencing the electoral and policy-making processes. The national environmental organizations now devote only 1 percent of their budgets to politics, and those budgets are dwarfed by the financial resources available to the foes of environmental regulation. Because the system is so stacked against it, the environmental movement will not be a major factor in the electoral process unless and until the system is changed. Accordingly, campaign finance reform ought to be at the very top of the environmental movement's legislative agenda. Nothing could be more important than breaking the connection between money and politics.