Richard Viguerie

Viguerie copied the names of donors to Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign from public records and built the conservative movement's direct-mail fundraising operation from them, raising money in small amounts from millions of supporters outside the party establishment. The lists financed the New Right causes and candidates of the 1970s and helped elect Reagan. The technique, later moved online, is now how both parties fund insurgent candidates. Critics said his mailers kept large shares of what they raised.