You stop drug dealing by legalizing drugs (see alcohol prohibition) which removes the profit motive, and with it the corruption. If the money isn't removed from politics, the corruption will always be there.
The corruption has been there since the beginning of time. The greeks treated corruption by exile and public murder. The French beheaded their corrupt leaders.
Corruption is not new. If you want to treat the disease, you don't treat the symptoms (corruption/graft), you have to treat the cause (centralized unchecked power).
As long as politicians can decide the minimum wage, and have the power to tax income, and force people to go to government schools, and to control the airwaves, there will be people vying for advantage from that power.
The way to make corruption less likely, is to radically decentralize that power, either by bring it back to smaller political bodies, or for citizens to take control of their lives, and draw a line in the sand over which politicians may not trespass.
So I am not saying corruption should be legalized. I am saying that freedom should be legalized, because when people are free, political power is very weak. When freedom is reduced, the state gets bigger, and attracts more corruption.
I think you're a brilliant guy, so I hope you can see what I am saying. Anything but increasing freedom and diminishing centralized power, is just putting lipstick on a pig.
@Ron Paul fans, a lot of very wealthy people support Ron Paul, but were limited from contributing under McCain-Feingold. McCain-Feingold protects the establishment, which is why contributions have exploded from corporate sources under it. It has brought more money into politics, rather than taking money out. It has also made it very hard to create grassroots political movements with the reporting requirements.
No one should believe that politicians will vote to reduce their own power and wealth. That's great if you're into fairy tales, but it isn't an adult view of the world. There are bad people, and they will find a way to steal from you. Believing that criminals will obey the law is naive at best.