ontemporary goal of election

Can you please look at this English text ..

Attempts to balance the distribution of campaign funds available to legitimate political candidates, a contemporary goal of election reformers in several states, have not notably diminished the disparities that persist between the best and worst fundraisers.

I'm not much into politics. So, I am not clear with those texts . I just don't understand the importance of those wordings .So, I'm not able to internalize these texts.....I'm sure they mean a lot.

I have few simple doubts . I'm breaking down the text in smaller parts .

"..campaign funds available to legitimate political candidates.." ---> who funds ? is there any campaign funds allocated by the Federal Govt to all legitimate political candidates in USA ? or they bear the campaign cost by their own ?


"...a contemporary goal of election reformers in several states.."---> who are these election reformers ? are they govt official ? or any common civilian who wants to bring reforms to the society .


"...have not notably diminished the disparities that persist between the best and worst fundraisers..." ---->what disparity they are talking about ? why there could be a disparity between best and worst fundraisers ? This is not understandable.

Can you please explain these doubts . I'm sure you guys must be knowing a lot of these information.

Thanks for your time