What has gone wrong with the campaign-finance system? Is it totally out of kilter?
I think it’s totally out of kilter. There are too many loopholes in terms of restraining the volume of money that goes into campaigns. It doesn’t prevent special-interest money from pouring in. And campaigns have just become ridiculously expensive. They are expensive in various ways, but one of the most notable is that the average United States senator spends two days out of every seven, from the day he is elected until he comes up for election again, raising money. And that’s true in the small states as well as the large, isn’t it? Yes. In our state of South Dakota, in the last Senate race involving the incumbent, Senator [Tom] Daschle, and John Thune, the challenger, they spent a total of $25 million between the two of them, about $12 [million] to $13 million a piece. It made it the most expensive Senate race, on a per capita basis, in the history of the country. You have only 700,000 people out here in South Dakota. You had $25 million for a Senate race. And refresh my memory, on bo
