Buying the right vote

There's an article in this month's Atlantic about a really wealthy gay businessman who has set up a way for wealthy gay donors to send donations to candidates across the country that are running against those with anti-gay agendas. The theory is that you want to stop these people from becoming the next Rick Santorum.

I don't know- something just feels wrong about this. For one thing, does this become an arms race - what if some anti-gay philanthropist decides that he will organize a more effective campaign... But also, this just ties elections to money in such a direct way, it feels un-democratic. Now I am not naive enough that I don't believe that money controls politics anyway, but this seems like really flaunting it.