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 and California State Senate 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.

Schmitz was notable for his far right-wing sympathies. By one measure, he was found to be the third most conservative member of Congress since 1937,^[1] and the ultra-conservative John Birch Society, in which Schmitz was a longtime leader, even expelled him eventually for his extremist rhetoric.^[2]

On October 25, 1971 Schmitz composed an introduction to the highly controversial book "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" written by Gary Allen with Larry Abraham. The book was published in 1972 by CONCORD PRESS. [5]

In 1982, after it was revealed -- and Schmitz was forced to admit -- that he had engaged in an extra-marital affair and fathered two children with one of his former college students, Schmitz's career as a politician effectively ended, as did his wife Mary's as a conservative political commentator.

One of Schmitz's daughters (with wife Mary), ex-schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau, in the 1990s also became the subject of much notoriety when she herself engaged in an extra-marital affair and had two children with a former student. Letourneau's affair, however, was with a underage boy whom she married after she was released from prison (for statutory rape) and he became an adult.

Unlike his daughter Mary Kay, Schmitz did not support or later seek custody of his children by his lover, Carla Stuckle, who worked long hours in two different jobs while raising the pair on her own, until she succumbed in 1994 after a long battle with diabetes, whereupon high-profile astrologer and psychic Jeane Dixon (a close friend of Mary Schmitz) took in the children, until Dixon died in 1997 and the boy and girl became wards of the state and went to an orphanage.

Two of Schmitz's other children, sons John and Joseph by wife Mary, have attained certain levels of fame and notoriety, each holding prominent posts in Republican presidential administrations and also, for Joseph, a prominent post in Blackwater USA, the controversial international security firm.

Schmitz died in 2001 at the age of 70 from prostate cancer, and the former Marine is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

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.

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 a year later sponsored a bill, which failed to pass, to investigate the backgrounds of teachers suspected of Communist affiliations.^[3] He also believed that state universities should be sold to private corporations as a curb against student protests.

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 was asked if he supported President Nixon's going to China. Schmitz replied, "I didn't care that Nixon went to China, I was only upset that he came 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 ran as the American Independent Party candidate for president in the 1972 election. He received 1,100,868 votes for 1.42% of the total [6]. His best showing was in Idaho, where he received 28,869 votes for 9.30% [7] of the vote and even finished second in some counties, ahead of Democrat George McGovern.

Return to the state senate

Schmitz won back his state senate seat in 1978. He was named chairman of the Constitutional Amendments Committee.

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 ... slick, butch lawyeress." The incident cost him his committee chairmanship and the John Birch Society 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.

Extramarital affair and fall-out^[4]

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 Stuckle, 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. Detectives threatened to arrest Carla and take John George away permanently unless she identified the father. In a shocking development, Carla said that Schmitz was John George's father.

During a custody hearing, Schmitz acknowledged fathering John George out of wedlock. He'd also fathered Carla's daughter, Eugenie. The admission effectively ended his political career, though he made a quixotic run for the 38th Congressional District in 1984. He was defeated by former Congressman Bob Dornan in the Republican primary 65% to 11%, with another candidate earning 24%. Dornan would go on to defeat Democratic incumbent Rep. Jerry Patterson in November.

Schmitz's affair also ended his wife Mary's career as a political commentator on television, where she advocated from the conservative position on the political roundtable debate show Free for All. (Before entering television, Mary had already become known as the "West Coast Phyllis Schlafly," having campaigned vigorously against Equal Rights Amendment. He and Mary briefly separated over the affair but reconciled.

Schmitz never financially supported nor helped raise his two children with Carla Stuckle. When the detective investigating the possible child abuse claim against Stuckle confronted Schmitz about fathering John George, Schmitz confirmed parentage and reportedly told the officer, "I do not and will not support him financially. It is her [Carla Stuckle's] responsibility to take care of him." Stuckle was not charged with any crime, and authorities returned John George to her care. Stuckle raised both John George and Eugenie on her own, working long hours at two different jobs. In 1994, she succumbed to complications from diabetes after a longtime battle against the disease. John George and Eugenie were just 11 and 13, respectively, at the time. As Schmitz did not want custody, Mary Schmitz's close friend, high-profile astologer and psychic Jeane Dixon (whom both President Richard Nixon and Nancy Reagan consulted while they were each in the White House), took in the children. However, in 1997, Dixon died. The children then became wards of the state, and went to an orphanage.

Schmitz died at the age of 70 on January 10, 2001, from prostate cancer, and he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Children

John P. Schmitz (son): Deputy Counsel to the Vice President (George H. W. Bush) 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; Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Counsel, Blackwater USA.

Other children by wife Mary: Phillip (deceased), Mary Kay, Jerome, Terry Ann, and Elizabeth. Children by Carla Stuckle: John and Eugenie Bostrom.

Quotes^[5]

"I wished to identify with the moderate wing of the Republican Party in Orange County." — on joining the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.

"I have no objection to President [Richard] Nixon going to China. I just object to his coming back."

"Jews are like everybody else, only more so."

"I may not be Hispanic, but I'm close. I'm Catholic with a mustache."

"Martin Luther King, Jr. is a notorious liar."^[2]

"I would have voted for a three-tier system—have one school that the blacks could go to, one school that all the whites could go to, and those who want to mix go to a third school."

"A Communist operation" — in reference to the 1965 Watts riots.^[3]

"A good military coup might be the best we could hope for if President [Ronald] Reagan's policies are not successful. A lot of people can't imagine anything like that happening in our country. These same people could never imagine themselves stealing to stay alive."

"I apologize to Gloria Allred and to all others who may have been wrongly characterized, hurt or harmed in any way by these statements. Based upon my relationships with Gloria Allred, her husband and her family, I have never considered her to be, and recognize that she is not, a 'slick, butch lawyeress.'" — in a statement to settle Allred's $10 million defamation suit against him.

"Hello, all you commies. I want to deny the rumors that I have been attending candidates' school in Chile or Argentina." — greeting reporters as he announced his 1982 candidacy for the U.S. Senate with Yasser Arafat at his side.

"I ought to get the Right to Life man-of-the-year award for this." — upon the revelation of his having two children with his former student/mistress, Carla Stuckle.

"I do not and will not support him financially. It is her [Carla Stuckle's] responsibility to take care of him." — to the investigating police officer, in reference to his son by his mistress, Carla Stuckle (neither did Schmitz financially support or help to raise his daughter by Stuckle).^[4]

"I don't talk to reporters anymore." — to a scribe who discovered him selling knickknacks in a Washington, D.C., shop in 1994.

"No one has used the argument that statutory rape—at least according to the Blackstone [sic] [law] dictionary—was solely a crime that a man could commit. It would seem to me that it became a woman's crime when you had this political egalitarianism which has led to Washington state's having an equal-rights amendment, although it was rejected by the United States. That makes this a very political case. I was one of the leading opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment when I was in the Congress, if not the leading opponent." — in response to the statutory rape charges against his daughter, Mary Kay Letourneau, for her extramarital affair with her underage male student.^[6]

"Basically, an honest man who just didn't realize the immensity of what he was up against. In a way, I'm sympathetic to him despite his mistakes because he was so easily caricatured, and I've seen myself caricatured. And if I were a more important figure, I'd be caricatured in history books, too." — on his hero, former Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Electoral history

California's 45th congressional district special election, 1970 (Republican primary)

• John G. Schmitz – 79,259 (60.41%)
• John A. Steiger – 25,081 (19.12%)
• William M. Wilcoxen – 21,660 (16.51%)
• John D. Ratterree – 5,206 (3.97%)

California's 45th congressional district special election, 1970

• John G. Schmitz (R) – 103,127 (49.30%)
• David N. Hartman (D) – 19,163 (9.16%)
• John A. Steiger (R) – 30,191 (14.43%)
• William M. Wilcoxen (R) – 27,016 (12.91%)
• Thomas Lenhart (R) – 16,378 (7.83%)
• John D. Ratterree (R) – 7,881 (3.77%)
• Maggie Meggs (R) – 5,440 (2.60%)

Note: All candidates ran in the same primary. Since no candidate won a majority, the top two finishers from both parties (Schmitz and Hartman) went to a runoff election.

California's 45th congressional district special election, 1970 (Runoff)

• John G. Schmitz (R) – 67,209 (72.37%)
• David N. Hartman (D) – 25,655 (27.63%)

California's 45th congressional district election, 1970

• John G. Schmitz (R, inc.) – 192,765 (67.04%)
• Thomas Lenhart (D) – 87,019 (30.27%)
• Francis R. Halpern (Peace & Freedom) – 7,742 (2.69%)

California's 45th congressional district Republican primary election, 1972

• Andrew J. Hinshaw – 42,782 (45.63%)
• John G. Schmitz – 40,261 (42.94%)
• Earl H. Carraway – 9,116 (9.72%)
• Larry Denna – 1,597 (1.70%)

1972 American Independent Party National Convention

• John G. Schmitz – 330 (71.74%)
• George L. Garfield – 56 (12.17%)
• Allen Grear – 26 (5.65%)
• Thomas J. Anderson – 24 (5.22%)
• Richard B. Kay – 16 (3.48%)
• George Wallace – 8 (1.74%)

United States presidential election, 1972

• Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew (Republican) – 47,168,710 (60.7%) and 520 electoral votes (49 states carried)
• George McGovern/Sargent Shriver (Democratic) – 29,173,222 (37.5%) and 17 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried)
• John Hospers/Theodora Nathan (Libertarian) – 3,674 votes (00.0%) and 1 electoral votes (faithless elector)
• John G. Schmitz/Thomas J. Anderson (American Independent) – 1,100,868 (1.4%) and 0 electoral votes

Further reading

• Biography on U.S. Congress BioGuide
• John G. Schmitz Memorial Home Page
• Steinbacher, John (1972). John Schmitz and the American Party

External links

• Guide to the John G. Schmitz Campaign Materials. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

See also

United States Marine Corps portal

References