When there's no candidate, it's still money that wins initiatives in the western USA. I don't care what that particular study concluded over 40 races of self-financed Gov candidates because it's not compelling. Existing studies of interest that acknowledge definitive correlation only differ in how to measure the degree and where diminishing returns occur.

> There's a large empirical literature on the issue and the conclusion is that money is more or less irrelevant in politics.

That's simply nonsense.