"No matter what the outcome is, this" -- the unholy deluge of big, bullying, outside money in the midterms -- "is a wake-up call,” said a Democratic official to Politico.
I'm certainly no knee-jerk advocate of Constitutional amendments, but in the matter of campaign finance I see no other alternative. Pass a limiting law and greedy or desperate pols find a way to circumvent it; pass a stricter law and some delusional handful of robed cowboys finds a way to explode it. The difficulty of fine-tuning legislation with respect to campaign finance is akin to the censorious nightmare we would have experienced in the way of free speech had the First Amendment not been so absolutist.
Public financing. Period. No exceptions. No escape clauses. Otherwise, no equal players.