I'd say Balint was already a household name. Certainly not to the degree Sanders, Leahy, Welch are, but as majority leader and then president pro tem of the State Senate I think she came into this election cycle with as good name recognition throughout the state as any state level politicians have had outside of our Governors.

Did the crypto money help her win the House of Reps seat, maybe. I think Balint was well positioned based on her work in the statehouse the last 7+ years. I think she had less negatives than Gray did, real or perceived. Gray's lack of voting was an issue with a lot of people I talked with, and also a lot of those people felt Gray lacked relevant experience because she hadn't been in elected office like Balint (and Kesha-Ram too) has been in. Not that I'm talking politics with a lot of people, but I have friends on all sides of the aisle, and anything from political junkies to apathetic.

I respect that you seem to have a different take than I do ("the bigger question is"). I think our elected representatives would do a good service to tackle election funding reform on a national level, but given that's how power works I don't see anything more than lip service occurring any time soon. If that's the system that we're working under for the foreseeable future, ultimately I don't think it really matters where the money comes from and for me it doesn't reflect on the candidate to the degree that positions and experience matter to me.