NO, it's access to OTHER PEOPLE's money!
It is the “other people’s money” that has been the prime moving force in gaining high political office today.
Graft and corruption still rule. It is just a little more sophisticated than it used to be.
Self-funded political careers is mostly a fairly rare concept in today’s market. Most of the “political reformers” of years past carried their campaigns on a shoestring. And did not get so very far, but they acted as a “steering committee” on policy, sometimes for years. Once the idea got out there, there were always partisans with money to take up the cause.