The only political race that needs a lot of money is the presidential one, because they have a

[shraby]

whole country to touch with their message.
The rest of the races, not so much.
Senators need to touch the state they will represent so the monetary needs aren't nearly as great.
Representatives only need to sway their district so with a few volunteers should be able to get the message out relatively inexpensively.

People from all over the country have no need to back any candidate not representing them, which includes the president (once every 4 years) one of 2 senators (once every 6 years and a representative (one person every 2 years.)

There is no need for money to be flying all over the U.S. in elections. A rule put in place that people can only financially back the ones representing them would take a whole lot of money out of the equation. It's probably the only way to do it and it could be a "no exceptions" rule so all the cheating that goes on would be virtually stopped. Any one breaking the no exception rule can pay the penalty.

[SheilaT]

1. Depending on how you define a lot of money.

It can take several million dollars to run for Congress, either in the House or the Senate. And I understand the cost of running for some state legislatures is also a tad on the expensive side.

Oh, and running for governor in most places isn't terribly cheap.

[shraby]

2. They have 1 state and it's population to contend with. If they can't get their message across

without begging money from all over the country, their message is probably not worth a damn.
Only the people they represent should be able to finance the candidate. Period.

Why should people from California or Florida (for example) be able to finance someone from Minnesota? Why should they even want to?
I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

[KamaAina]

3. California has about one-eighth of the entire country's population.

Statewide races here can be damn expensive. This applies to our numerous ballot measures, too, so the ones with the big buck$$$ behind them, like Prop H8, usually pass.

[SheilaT]

4. They don't need to beg for money from all over the country,

but they do wind up begging for money from all over the state.

I've seen people who thought they could run for a Senate seat who simply had no idea how much money they were going to need to raise, and how much time they'd spend doing that, and either dropped out or wound up with an embarrassingly underfunded campaign.

[NightWatcher]

5. And if people would be nice, we could close the prisons

Your OP is satire, right?

[shraby]

6. Not a chance. To answer those who complain because a state like California has

so many people, all the more to request donations from.
There is a whole gamut of incomes in that state and a high population. Enough to finance the campaigns of their own politicians.

If I were to run for office, I would only accept donations from the very people I represent.
This is not satire, snark or an attempt at comedy.

I'm dead serious. If you want to get big money out of politics, keep the really rich from spreading it far and wide.