This is a thorough and eye-opening piece. But @GavnSample pulls his punches on the real villians/grifters of the bunch -- the campaign consultants and mail vendors who identify, groom, harvest, and then manage first-time, attractive, minority candidates. The consultants are the/ https://twitter.com/GavnSample/status/1327117803116244992

2/ ones getting rich here, not the candidates necessarily. Don't get me wrong -- I know some failed celebrity candidates who take to flying first class and staying in hotels that I, a modest country lawyer who makes payroll twice a months, would never frequent -- all with OPM/

3/ or Other People's Money. Flying alongside are the grifter consultants. Those candidates may run again, or not -- but , the consultants will strike again, find a good-looking minority candidate to run against a loathed fixture of the left -- and ride that sucker to the bank!

4/ and who loses out? Candidates who actually CAN win, who last week lost their congressional race, or state senate or assembly or city council or mayoral race, by a few hundred or thousands of votes. They could have used that money and they could have run the extra ad, and won.

5/ That grift isn't free, isn't "victimless." There's only so-much small-dollar money to go around, and if it gets sucked up into the fetid maw of con artists bottom-feeders, it doesn't go to help elect future leaders with real promise. Same goes for scam-PACS.... often soft/

6/ landing places for former staffers, consultants, or termed-out politicos.... maybe it's a payoff for helping elect someone, or leaving their administation job gracefully, a banked favor...donors fund it, cash is pocketed, less money for meat and potatoes political needs.