Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington says money often finds its way to power. “People give money to politicians because they get their money’s worth. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t give money to politicians going forward,” Farnsworth explains. “And so, if you’re going to give money to politics, you might as well give money to somebody who’s highly influential, and party leaders and key figures on key committees like Appropriations are in fact those players.”
