His power base wasn’t his congressional district, it was Herman Brown’s bank account

The new power he possessed did not derive from Roosevelt’s friendship, or from Rayburn’s. It did not derive from seniority in the House, not even – despite the relationship that power in a democracy bears to the votes of the electorate – to his seat in it. His power was simply the power of money. To a considerable extent, the money was Herman Brown’s…. His power base wasn’t his congressional district, it was Herman Brown’s bank account

R. Caro, the years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 1: the path to power (1982), 659