Remember, candidates are already debating — and dropping out — long before the first primary or caucus vote by any US citizens. By the time any voting to even select a party candidate takes place, much of the campaign for a nomination will already be over.
That said, knowing that nearly half of the money so far donated to presidential campaigns (through direct donations and SuperPACs) is coming from just 158 families out of the 120 million households in the US … is disturbing.
But, remember, SCOTUS ruled in Citizens United that this is all just free speech. It's just that some of us have orders of magnitude louder voices than others.
(Of that number, 138 of the households are supporting Republican candidates. Consider how that will work out in the general election.)
There are some further interesting stats on who those 158 families are (two of them live on the street in the picture below, deemed by Zillow as "the most expensive street in America"). The article is worth a read.
Simple solution Dave: Term limits and campaign reform. Serve once, go home. $100 max donation……….
+keith olszewski I remain unconvinced that term limits help all that much, if at all — if anything, it makes the constant stream of neophyte legislators more dependent on outsiders, putting constant / consistent leadership outside of the elected realm.
It certainly doesn't seem to have helped the state legislative set.