There are many ways to change electoral systems so that it is harder for money -- especially large corporations -- to unduly influence elections and the activities of elected officials. This site compares a number of them and provides excellent liinks to other groups concerned. (Destination Democracy was The Benton Foundation's superlative exploration of the trade-offs involved in many approaches to Campaign Finance Reform. The site is gone, that link is via The Wayback Machine.)
If citizens can't hear a candidate's views, they can't judge whether to vote for them. Debates are typically organized by major parties and exclude smaller parties' candidates. This could and should change.
For each ballot initiative, a panel of randomly-selected and demographically-balanced voters is brought together for several days to fairly evaluate it. They hear directly from campaigns for and against the measure, and from policy experts. Their vote, statements for and against, and consensus statements as a whole, are included in the official voters' pamphlet.