What's the most effective campaign reform?

I’ve heard rumblings that the next presidential election may be the first time that a billion dollars may be spent on election politics. In my opinion, that’s an obscene amount of money, an obscene situation, and a clear indication that we desperately need reform.

I have an idealized and completely unrealistic thought that perhaps candidates should be given a certain number of venues to get out their message (television ads, print editorials, debates, etc), paid for by the government, and that’s it. Then politics wouldn’t be a race of “who’s raised the most money”, and politicians in office wouldn’t spend half of their term fundraising. (Naive, I know.)

Do you agree that we need election reform? What do you think would be an effective plan? What about a realistic plan? Do you think we’ll ever have the political will to make it happen?