John Sears
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Patrick Sears is an attorney and a Republican political strategist.
He was born July 1940 in Syracuse, New York, son of James L Sears and Helen M. Fitzgerald. Sears attended Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse. An alumnus of University of Notre Dame (BS-1960) and Georgetown University (LLB, JD-1963).
Notable milestones in his career include:
- Playing a pivotal role at the 1968 Republican National Convention in securing Richard Nixon's nomination for the presidency. He was only 27 at the time and was subsequently shut out of Nixon operation by John Mitchell who considered him overly ambitious.
- Managing Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential bid. Reagan ran in the Republican primaries against incumbent President Gerald Ford and almost knocked the sitting president out of the running.
- Managing Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential bid, prior to being fired by Reagan and replaced by William Casey on the day he won the New Hampshire primary in 1980. Prior to being fired, Sears ran the national operation out of Washington and was a rival with Edwin Meese in California.
In addition to those high points, He started as a law clerk for the New York State Court of Appeals (1963-65), a member of the law firm of Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Alexander, Guthrie & Mitchell 1965-66 and of the staff of Richard M. Nixon 1966-69. He was Deputy Counsel to the President 1969-70, an attorney with the law firm of Gadsby & Hannah in Washington DC 1970-76 and has been a partner in the law firm of Baskin and Sears since 1977. A respected political analyst (NBC Today 1984-85) and commentator, he resides in McLean, Virginia.
Ronald Reagan told journalist and presidential scholar Theodore White that "There was a feeling that I was just kind of a spokesman for John Sears." Sears had been attempting to consolidate power in the Reagan campaign in 1980. He overstepped his bounds and was fired. William Casey was hired to take his place. Casey demanded administrative control of the campaign, but had no desire to control policy and by extension the personnel choices of the Reagan Administration--something John Sears was boldy attempting to control.
In 2000 Leonard Garment incorrectly identified Sears as Deep Throat in his book "In Search of Deep Throat." Sears then requested that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (who unmasked Watergate with the help of Deep Throat) publicly deny it was him, and Bernstein complied. (Later it was revealed that W. Mark Felt, former Deputy FBI Director, was "Deep Throat".)
Sources:
- Who's Who in Am Politics, 1985-6, p 1530
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index, 2d ed, Gale Research, ISBN 0-8103-1094-5, p140; WhoAm 74,-76,-78, WhoAmL 78,-79, WhoAmP 79, WhoS&SW 73
- Theodore H. White, America in Search of Itself, 1982.
