A look at how legal-but-corrupt money keeps powerful people in power, framed as bad news for ordinary voters.

• "Official corruption" is the core problem: spending and deals that are legal but still corrupt.
• The Thomas Massie primary is the example — $35 million spent on a single House seat that pays $180,000 a year.
• Almost all of that money came from outside groups, not local voters.
• The claim is that donors were effectively buying the seat for AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.

Outlook: Expect big outside money to keep flooding key races, with little legal pressure to stop it.