ANALYSIS: Here's why the latest campaign financing statements should bother you

Money has always influenced politics.  But the latest campaign financing statements filed by the two candidates in Iowa House District should prove to everyone how out-of-control the political process has gotten.

Republican Darrell Branhagen and Democrat Rick Edwards spent almost a combined half million dollars on their campaign last fall.  For an Iowa House of Representatives seat.  In rural Northeast Iowa.

Actually, it wasn't Branhagen and Edwards who did most of the spending.  The Iowa Democratic and Republican Parties combined to spend over $400,000 on TV ads, mailers and other political advertising.

It used to be that campaigns were financed by the candidates themselves.  But having Des Moines control your TV advertising and flyer wording produces--well, you remember what it produces--a lot more heat than light.

None of us as voters are well served by having $400,000 spent on just one state legislature race.  But the political parties love the situation because almost no one wants to spend $250,000 of their own money just to run for the state legislature.  The road to Des Moines now runs through Des Moines.  That should worry us as average citizens wanting our voices to be heard.  An argument between a citizen who made a $50 donation and a political party which made a $250,000 donation won't always necessarily be settled in favor of the political party, but if you're placing a bet, that's what the odds favor.

Remember all those annoying political ads on TV last fall?  It turns out they were not only annoying, they were also a sign that your influence over the political system is disappearing.