What we need is more Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is by no means perfect but Sweet Zombie Jesus, he is still 100 times better then the wast majority of politicians.
Or in other words, the more actively engaged the electorate is, the stronger the "public" lobby is vs. other private lobbies.
And the smaller and more local a government is, the more engaged the electorate is. Prime example, the smaller states have more independent senators, governors, etc. By independent I mean literally (I) and not (R) or (D), not just metaphorically independent.