acts. The hold that rich special interest groups have over both elections and legislation should be broken--public office should not be backed by private money, and political opportunity should be available to anyone.
             Among the challenges resulting from campaign finance abuses is low voter turnout. Many voters have lost faith in and become disgusted by our political system. A staggering number of people don't bother to vote, because they feel their votes won't be counted. Polls show that citizens believe politicians are "beholden to special-interest money and that their own individual votes no longer matter" (Jezer, 1996).
             The fact is money is the determining factor in political success--it affects which candidates run the most effective, successful campaigns and enables wealthy, powerful interest groups to influence both elections and lawmaking. Certainly, campaign contributions do not affect all votes. For example, says journalist Marty Jezer, "Corporate money is not often going to persuade Democrats from districts with a strong labor movement to vote against labor's interests. Nor are Republicans from affluent districts likely to vote with labor, no matter how much money PACs affiliated with the AFL-CIO send their way" (Jezer, 1996).
             On the other hand, there is no doubt that money does buy legislative influence to some degree. Large corporations and individual millionaires don't pour millions of dollars into the political arena without expecting something in return. Corporations (or sometimes entire industries) looking for a regulatory exemption or a tax write-off require support from legislators, who insert beneficial clauses into larger bills--therefore complex bills with hundreds of clauses offer easy cover for Congressmen to vote according to their contributors' wishes.
             For example, in 1999 several large pharmaceutical companies donated $4 million to both the Democ...