According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Houseand Senate candidates who are the top campaign spenders usually winelections as shown in the chart below. This money comes from fourmain sources, the largest of which is ?Large IndividualContributions,? according to the Federal Election Commission asreported by opensecrets.org.

1. Does this give too much influence to the ?largeindividual? contributors?

2. Are the contributions necessary given the expense ofgetting information out to voters?

3. Do you believe that the overall result is efficientafter comparing the cost of influence and the benefit ofinformation? Explain your answer.

Percentage of races won by top-spending candidate 100% 80 2000 Senate '04 '08 House 12 '16 Excludes races with no opponent, but does include races where opponent spent nothing FiveThirtyEight SOURCE: CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS