he then joined nixon's political staff, as nixon was preparing a bid for the 1968 republican presidential nomination. sears played a pivotal role at the 1968 republican national convention, in securing richard nixon's nomination for the presidency. he was only 28 at the time, and was subsequently shut out of the nixon campaign operation by john mitchell (a partner from his law firm), who considered him overly ambitious. mitchell, who became u.s. attorney general in the first nixon administration, was subsequently caught up as a central figure in the watergate scandal, from 1972 to 1974.