If the potential elected officials, can currently with high unemployment find so much money to spend on their own let them pay for it all that way. It is high time we cut some real waste out of the budget for the betterment of the majority not the minority of Americans.
In this case the American citizens would be the majority and the elected or want to be elected officials are the minority. In addition, the election campaigns are getting to high priced to make it fair for what use to be anyone can serve their fellow Americans by serving in Politics in order to help other Americans.
Now that is so not true unless you have a war chest of billions of dollars at your disposal and for most that is not possible unless you are from a upper class or high middle class environment generally speaking.
There are some exceptions in some cases but most of those are there for other reasons and coincidences. Someone took an interest that had the ability to put him or her in position for this in the future. In many cases, matching funds only aid those who have a quid pro quo idea for this candidate or that candidate to defeat a candidate who cannot get the backing of those with the financial ability to help get them elected.
However, matching funds do not serve the best interest of either candidates or the potential lessening of America's deficit spending budgets as a whole. Instead, it increases the money going out of America's national coffers. With very little aid to America as a whole as many of these funds are spent only regionally where it will benefit the candidates running for office providing no redeeming value to the matching funds original intent.
Which means if a state or region is not seemingly in play that state will get very little money spent in that area to aid the candidates hopes of winning. This is not beneficial but to only those areas where there is some form of political gain as a whole.
Moreover, spent on things that will truly benefit the candidate or their constituents in their choices for voting as often used for polling, phone banks and the like thus, providing no real answers in what the candidates believe in, stand for or hope to accomplish for any given area or America as a nation.