Another Watergate Scandal Changed Campaign Finance in America : Planet Money : NPR

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Fred Wertheimer, left, director of Common Cause's campaign finance monitoring project, speaks to reporters during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 31, 1974. Wertheimer spoke about his project's 1972 analysis of congressional campaign finances. (AP Photo/Charles W. Harrity)

Fred Wertheimer, left, director of the Common Cause campaign finance monitoring project, speaks to reporters during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 31, 1974. Wertheimer discusses his project's 1972 analysis of congressional campaign finances. (AP Photo/Charles W. Harrity)

Fifty years ago, five thieves were arrested while breaking into the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., in one of the most infamous moments in American political history.

But there’s one corner of this scandal you may not have heard of, and its implications are far-reaching.

When a Washington, D.C., lawyer learned that thieves were paid in part with secret donations from the Nixon campaign, he set out to find answers. His work helped lead to dramatic changes in the way we pay for elections. But it also had unintended consequences that ultimately led to today’s multibillion-dollar elections.

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