An educated guess on my part would be, that any individual who wanted to enter the democratic primary in California would have to be willing to kiss at least $100,000 dollars of his or her money goodbye. Not money you would raise, just the personal cash you would have to put up to get in the game. Then consider what you could buy or do with a $100,000 dollars. This is probably why a lot of good candidates don't get involved in the game. Let's not even consider personal sacrifice i.e. family, friends, or etc. You can have all the campaign reform you want, but, the cost of getting in the game is going to be the same.
Sincerely, Tom Lehman