The Washington Post published commentary by Abby Wood of the USC Gould School and Christian Grose of the USC Dornsife College on whether elected officials who violate campaign finance laws will be punished at the polls. The authors turned to the post-Watergate era when campaign finance violations were often in the headlines. Violations at that time told voters that a candidate was, at worst, corrupt or, at best, a disorganized manager, the authors wrote.

Our current political climate has enough parallels to the Watergate era that we suspect voters will react negatively to campaign finance violations again. We will find out Nov. 6.