At the same time, Sarbanes watched as the Supreme Court made a series of rulings that equated money in politics with speech, and began to undo the rules that were meant to prevent big money from overwhelming the system. The best-known of these decisions was Citizens United in 2010, of course, but just last month, in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the court struck down the aggregate federal limit of $123,200 that individuals could contribute to candidates and parties during a two-year election cycle.

Finally, Sarbanes watched with dismay as his constituents reacted to the influx of big money into politics. “People are convinced that Washington, D.C., is bought and sold and that their voices count for nothing. The question is: What do you do about it?”

For decades, the answer for those in the campaign finance reform movement had always been to try to limit the amount of money any one person could contribute. Although individual contribution limits per candidate are still on the books, that general approach is clearly not viable in the age of the Roberts court.

So Sarbanes and other reformers began to come at the problem from the opposite direction: magnifying the role of the small donor, rather than trying to diminish the role of the large donor. In February, Sarbanes sponsored a bill that tries to do just that, at least for congressional races.

It has three main components. First is a $50 tax credit per donor per election cycle. Second is a voluntary matching fund system. People who donate up to $150 to a candidate who has agreed to lower contribution limits and the full disclosure of all donations will have that donation matched 6 to 1 with federal funds. If the candidate agrees to take no contributions higher than $150, the match rises to 9 to 1. And finally, it allows candidates to raise additional matching funds in the last 60 days of the election if the candidate feels he needs it to ward off a last-minute advertising blitz. (The bill has disincentives to keep that additional money from being used unless it is really needed.)