At 03:09 PM 12/17/95 -0500, you wrote:

A much simpler solution might be to just force all politicians to give up their campaign funds when they retire, or even better, immediately following the elections. Today, whatever is left in their campaign funds are given over to them when they retire or are forced out of office, on top of their lucrative pensions.

For Congress, I think this changed a few years ago. Before a certain date, retiring Congressmen could convert unused campaign funds to their own money. At some point they changed the rules, and that is no longer the case.