I agree that there is far too much obsession with raising money in the political world, although I would argue that the expenses behind advertising themselves are not the only part to this problem. Some technology is making things cheaper for advertising. We're seeing some quite good use of the internet as a tool for advertising candidates without the issue of "slot buying."
There is a problem I see with fund raising where the person who is able to raise the most money is often seen as a "better candidate" purely on the grounds of their fund raising skills. After all, if they weren't awesome, people wouldn't have given them all that money, right? I don't know exactly how we can address this problem as it is one of societal perception, but it's something that has bugged me as I see it in the news.