The Congressional candidate that spent the most money won in nine out of 10 races in the election this month, according to a post-election analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.  President-Elect Barack Obama – the $600 million dollar man – and the next Congress must address several important issues – the damaged economy, energy independence, and our costly healthcare system. Our leaders should make a top priority of restructuring the way we finance our federal elections so we can move away from the expensive cycle of pay-to-play politics that distorts public policy in Washington, D.C.  In a column in The Washington Post today, Democracy 21’s Fred Wertheimer proposed a number of strong ideas for fixing the Presidential public financing system. In “The $200 Campaign Finance Fix,” Wertheimer writes that Obama’s ability to raise as much as half his funds from donations of $200 or less, and much of that over the Internet, points the way to the next round of reform efforts.  Wertheimer proposes that candidates receive a match of $4 in public funds for each dollar raised, up to a maximum of $200 per donor. That would encourage candidates to expand their outreach to smaller donors and reduce their need to court big money interests.  We should consider a similar matching program for Congressional candidates. This would give candidates an incentive to embrace grassroots engagement and ordinary citizens would know that aspirants to lead the nation had no reason to sell their access to an elite few to pay for the next round of television advertising.