The Republican Senate Caucus had a large meeting and Ted got up and gave an eloquent speech about his vision for the Senate agenda, which conservative ideals he would champion, and how he would shepherd legislation through the body to advance those ideals.
Then Mitch got up and pointed to a Senator and said "I gave your campaign $2 million." Then he pointed to another Senator and said "I gave your campaign $3 million." And so on.
Mitch won the Leadership vote handily.
A much better remedy for the problem is a constitutional amendment to only allow campaign donations from those who can vote for the candidate.