the alcmaeonidae bid for the contract to rebuild the temple, and in the doing of that, they spent some of their own money to make the temple even more beautiful than the contract required, which put them in great favor with the priests of delphi, and they immediately cashed this favor in, in the form of seeking their own political advantage.the story, as herodotus tells it, is that their goal was to drive out hippeis from athens and the way to do it this time--you remember they've tried every trick in the world, and it hasn't really worked.