Campaign Finances/special interests

Special interests have too much influence on elected officials. This is because candidates feel they need to raise millions of dollars to effectively campaign and then become indebted to their contributers. Each time we pass a rule regarding campaign finance reform the elected officials find a way around the law.
The courts have ruled against real campaign finance reform based on candidates freedom of speech and their legal right to spend lots of money even if it is their own.
Most of the money spent on each campaign is spent on media ads and mailings that say very little about what a given candidate would do once in office.
The internet and e-mail have proven to be a very adequate inexpensive way to communicate with the public (you are reading this and it cost me nothing). Therefore if I was a candidate I would make my case for election via e-mail communications and blogs such as this.
Once elected I would not listen to a particular interest without requiring all those interested in an issue getting together to agree on the facts of the problem. My experience is that if all sides can agree on the facts regarding a problem the solution comes much easier. Once we all agree on the facts of the situation and where we want to go, all sides should discuss potential solutions and try and come to a compromise that they could recommend to me. This system worked well when I served on the county Hazardous Material Commission. It was slow but resulted in solutions that all could agree on with practical correct solutions not one sided political solutions. By not taking any campaign funds from special interests, once I got the facts I could vote on what I truly believe to be the best solution without regard to campaign contributions.