John G. Schmitz
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John George Schmitz (August 12, 1930 – January 10, 2001) was a conservative Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Orange County, California, prominent member of the John Birch Society, and the American Independent Party candidate for President of the United States in 1972.
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[edit] Early life and military career
Schmitz was born in Milwaukee. He obtained his B.S. degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1952 and an M.A. from California State University, Long Beach in 1960. He served as a United States Marine Corps jet fighter and helicopter pilot from 1952 to 1960, and was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1960 to 1983.
[edit] Brief stint in Congress and presidential campaign
After leaving the Marines, Schmitz took a job as an instructor in philosophy and political science at Santa Ana College. He also became active in the John Birch Society. His views attracted the attention of wealthy Orange County conservatives such as fast-food magnate Carl Karcher, sporting goods heir Willard Voit and San Juan Capistrano rancher Tom Rogers. They helped him win election to the California Senate in 1964 from a district in Orange County. His views were very conservative even by the standards of Orange County -- Schmitz once joked that he had joined the John Birch Society in order to court the centrist vote in Orange County. He opposed sex education in public schools, and believed citizens should be able to carry loaded guns in their cars. He was also very critical of the civil unrest that characterized the mid-1960s. He called the Watts riots of 1965 "a Communist operation," and believed that state universities should be sold to private corporations as a curb against student protests. Some of his remarks had anti-Semitic overtones.
He served in the state senate until 1970, when he won a special election to succeed the late James B. Utt in the House from California's 35th Congressional District. He won a full term in November.
When Richard Nixon, whose permanent residence at the time was in San Clemente--located in Schmitz' district--first went to China in 1972, Schmitz suggested that Nixon shouldn't bother coming back. Nixon recruited Orange County Tax Assessor Andrew J. Hinshaw, a more moderate Republican, to run against Schmitz in the primary. Hinshaw edged out Schmitz in the Republican primary. Angry at Nixon's role in his defeat, Schmitz won the American Independent Party candidate for president in 1972. He won just over a million votes. His best showing was in Idaho, where he won almost 10 percent of the vote and even finished second in some counties, ahead of Democrat George McGovern.
[edit] Return to the state Senate
Schmitz won back his state senate seat in 1978. He was named chairman of the Constitutional Amendments Committee. However, his behavior became increasingly erratic. For instance, soon after his election, he advocated a military coup similar to that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
In 1981, he chaired a committee hearing on abortion, which led to the issuance in his name of a press release headlined "Senator Schmitz and His Committee Survive Attack of the Bulldykes". It referred to his audience at the hearings as having "hard, Jewish, and arguably female faces." Feminist attorney Gloria Allred, who testified before the committee, sued Schmitz for $10 million, but settled for $20,000 and an apology. Schmitz's "apology" read, in part, "I have never considered her to be...a slick, butch lawyeress". The incident cost him his committee chairmanship. It was too much even for the John Birch Society, which stripped him of his membership for "extremism." Despite this, Schmitz announced plans to run for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in 1982.
[edit] Extramarital affair
Early in 1982, John George Stuckle, an infant born on June 10, 1981, was treated at an Orange County hospital for an injured penis. A piece of hair was wrapped so tightly around the organ "in a square knot," according to one doctor--that it was almost severed. The surgery went well, and the baby suffered no permanent injury. However, the baby's mother, Carla, a 43-year-old Swedish-born immigrant and longtime Republican volunteer, wasn't allowed to take John George home, since some of the attending doctors were convinced the hair had been deliberately tied around his penis.
During a custody hearing, Schmitz acknowledged fathering John George and another child out of wedlock. The admission effectively ended his political career (though he made a quixotic run for the Congressional seat of Bob Dornan in 1984). Schmitz and his wife, Mary, a right-wing political commentator, briefly separated over the incident.
[edit] Letourneau-Fualaau scandal
In 1997, Schmitz's daughter, Mary Kay Letourneau, was arrested for the statutory rape of a teenaged boy with whom she had an affair and a child. Newspapers reported that Letourneau's father had attempted to find a loophole in United States treaties with Samoa in order to find out if his daughter could be excused from trial (the boy victim in the case was of Samoan extraction).
At the time of his daughter's scandal, Schmitz had left politics and started a winery in rural Virginia. He also sold political memorabilia one day a week at a shop in Washington, D.C.'s Union Station. He had also bought the home of his hero, Senator Joseph McCarthy.
The newspapers had a field day with the Schmitz family in the wake of the Letourneau case. Some reporters painted a picture of a chilly household with an unemotional mother who stressed appearance over affection. This explanation was refuted by Schmitz family friends.
Schmitz died on January 10, 2001 of prostate cancer and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
[edit] Family
John P.(son): Deputy Counsel to the Vice President during Reagan administration, Deputy Counsel to the President, George H.W. Bush administration. Joseph E. Schmitz (son): Department of Defense Inspector General, George W. Bush administration. Other children: Phillip (deceased), Mary Kay, Jerome, Terry Ann, and Elizabeth. He was married for 47 years to the former Mary E. Suehr.
[edit] Further reading
- Biography on U.S. Congress BioGuide
- John G. Schmitz Memorial Home Page
- Steinbacher, John (1972). John Schmitz and the American Party
| Preceded by James B. Utt |
United States Representative for the 35th Congressional District of California 1970–1973 |
Succeeded by Andrew J. Hinshaw |
| Preceded by George Wallace |
American Independent Party Presidential Candidate 1972 (3rd in popular vote) |
Succeeded by Lester Maddox Thomas J. Anderson |
