John G. Schmitz

John George Schmitz (August 12, 1930 – January 10, 2001) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives and California State Senate from Orange County, California.

He was also a member of the John Birch Society.

By one measure, he was found to be the third-most conservative member of Congress between 1937 and 2002, and the ultraconservative John Birch Society, of which Schmitz was a longtime leader, later expelled him for extremist rhetoric.

Nixon recruited Orange County Tax Assessor Andrew J. Hinshaw, a more mainstream Republican, to run against Schmitz in the Republican primary for the renumbered 39th District.

Hinshaw defeated Schmitz by 2.7 percentage points in the primary and went on to win the general election for the seat.

Schmitz graduated from Marquette University High School in 1948.

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.

Schmitz was Catholic.

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.

He was also critical of the civil unrest that characterized the mid-1960s.

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 moderate vote in Orange County.

He opposed sex education in public schools.

He believed citizens should be able to carry loaded guns in their cars.

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.

He also believed that state universities should be sold to private corporations as a curb against student protests.

Schmitz wrote the foreword for None Dare Call It Conspiracy, a book written by Gary Allen, a self-described former "Americans for Democratic Action liberal", speechwriter for 1968 American Independent Party candidate George Wallace and fellow John Birch Society member.

Schmitz believed in Allen's conspiracy that socialists planned to set up a one-world government where they would control the banks, natural resources, commerce, finances and transportation, as well as the idea of Richard Nixon being an agent of the Rockefeller family, who, in Allen's opinion, had financed the Bolshevik Revolution.

Schmitz 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.

Much like his successor, Utt had a penchant for conspiracy theories and often spoke positively of the John Birch Society.

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.

In 1972 he was the candidate for President of the United States of the American Independent Party, later known as the American Party.

Schmitz was notable for his extreme right-wing sympathies and for his slurs against African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, women, Jews and homosexuals.

When Richard M. Nixon, whose permanent residence at the time was in San Clemente—located in Schmitz's 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."

Schmitz, who believed Nixon had shifted to the left in social and economic issues, served as chairman of John M. Ashbrook's 1972 campaign for the Republican Party presidential nomination.

Ashbrook competed in the New Hampshire (9.8% of the vote), Florida (9%), and California (10%) primaries, then withdrew from the race.

Schmitz, angry at Nixon's role in his defeat and at Ashbrook's loss in the Republican primaries, changed his party registration to the American Independent Party after being nominated as their candidate for president in the 1972 election.

His running mate was Thomas J. Anderson, a fellow member of the John Birch Society.

The pair received 1,100,868 votes for 1.42% of the total.

Three-time Academy Award winner and fellow John Birch Society member Walter Brennan helped Schmitz with his campaign, serving as finance chairman.

In 1982, after it was revealed—and Schmitz admitted—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.

His seven children with his wife include politicians John P. Schmitz and Joseph E. Schmitz, and teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, convicted in 1997 of child sexual abuse.

Schmitz died in 2001 at the age of 70 from prostate cancer; the former Marine Colonel was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Schmitz was born in Milwaukee, the son of Wilhelmina (Frueh) and Jacob John Schmitz.