Dollars for cents

Why would a person spend millions of dollars to land a job that only pays thousands?
That's a question that has been troubling me for years, maybe decades.

Mayor Bloomberg recently spent more than 85 million dollars to win his job that should pay $195,000 but the magnanimous billionaire is only accepting one dollar for his labor. Huh? Why?

Self-financed campaigns are nothing new, but it's a growing trend. It's all so confusing now that I don't even know what a fair election could be. Let's just hope that we have the best democracy that money can buy.