Most americans from both sides of the aisle agree overwhelmingly that their is far too much money in poltiics. One way to do this and kill two birds with one stone is to create caps for spending on campaings for each canidate while partially using those funds to pay for those senators/office staff salaries.
Im going to use an arbitray number to explain my idea. We are going to say that for senate races the maximum amount of money to be raised by each campaign is $2 million dollars. Half the money raised goes to the candiate to use for THEIR campaign ($1 million) the other $1 million dollars gets pooled with the other candiates money to pay for the salary of that senator for his/her term or along with the staff needed. Each dollar donated gets split 50/50 (half to the campaign and half to the pooled money to pay for the winners salary/staff). Again the $2 million number is arbitrary. This is not to say that the senator would get all the money as there is alot of other expenses they would still have the same salary they do now. We would just use that fund to pay for that staff and position. We would also end PACs, only money to be spent on campaigns is what was raised by that canidate.
I believe this would help get rid of money influencing politics. This would also allow for better canidates as this would apply to primaries as well. The winner would no longer be decided by who spends the most money. This would put all canidates on the same level playing field money wise allowing for truly the best candiate to move forward. This way canidates arent owing favors to corporations and influenced by their money so they can do the right thing. The 50/50 split will also allow for positions to be funded by willing participants donating money rather than funded entierly by taxpayers. This would be similair to sports team having caps to ensure that no team has an unfair money advantage. Critics could argue that if Democrat candiate wins I dont wany my money used to pay for their salary but you are already doing that as a taxpayer now. This way its at least voluntary by you choosing whether or not you want to donate or not.