John Sears (Policy Advisor)

John Patrick Sears ( July 3, 1940 - March 26, 2020 ) was an American lawyer and a Republican political strategist. From 1969 to 1970 he was an assistant advisor to President Nixon , assisting both him and Ronald Reagan in their presidential campaigns.

Life

Sears was born in July 1940 near Syracuse , New York, to James L. Sears and Helen M. Fitzgerald. Sears attended the Christian Brothers Academy in the suburbs of Syracuse, a private Catholic preparatory academy. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1960 and graduated from Georgetown University's law school in 1963 .

Sears served as a legal clerk for the New York State Court of Appeals from 1963 to 1965. He then joined the New York law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Alexander, Guthrie & Mitchell for two years. As a colleague of the firm, he met Richard Nixon , who at the time was a former congressman , senator, and vice president, and an unsuccessful presidential and gubernatorial candidate, working as an attorney in a private law firm.

He then joined Nixon's political staff as Nixon was preparing to run for the Republican presidential run in 1968. Sears played a pivotal role in securing Richard Nixon's nomination for the presidency at the 1968 National Republican Convention. He was only 28 years old at the time and was subsequently expelled from the Nixon campaign by John N. Mitchell (a partner in his law firm) who thought he was too ambitious. Mitchell, who became attorney general during Nixon's first term, later became known as a central figure in the 1972-1974 Watergate scandal .

Sears served as deputy advisor to the president from 1969 to 1970. He then left the White House to join the Gadsby & Hannah law firm in Washington DC . to change where he worked from 1970 to 1976. Since 1977 he has been a partner in the Washington law firm Baskin and Sears.

Sears managed Ronald Reagan's presidential bid from 1976, when Reagan ran against incumbent President Gerald Ford in the Republican primary and almost won the nomination. He re-directed Reagan's candidacy for president in 1980 but was fired and replaced by William Casey on the day Reagan won the New Hampshire primary . Sears had led the national operation from Washington and rivaled Edwin Meese , Michael Deaver, and Lyn Nofziger in California . They did not trust Sears, believing that he was trying to consolidate power at the expense of many longtime Reagan friends and supporters. Reagan told journalist and political expert Theodore White : "It felt like I was just sort of a spokesman for John Sears. Sears tried to consolidate power in the Reagan campaign in 1980. He went beyond his limits, which led to his dismissal William Casey was hired to take his place. Casey (who was later appointed head of the Central Intelligence Agency by President Reagan ) requested administrative control of the campaign but did not want to control the politics, and hence personnel decisions, of the Reagan. Control campaign; this was something John Sears was trying to control. "

In the 1980s, Sears was "the highest paid" American lobbyist for the South African apartheid regime, "with an annual salary of $ 500,000."

In 2000, Leonard Garment incorrectly identified Sears as Deep Throat in his book In Search of Deep Throat . Sears then demanded that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (who unmasked Watergate with the help of Deep Throat) publicly deny that it was him, and Bernstein complied. It was later revealed by Woodward that W. Mark Felt, former FBI deputy director , was "Deep Throat."

Sears served as a political analyst for NBC Today from 1984 to 1985 . He lived in McLean, Virginia . Sears died of a heart attack in Miami on March 26, 2020.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matt Schudel: John Sears, who helped guide Nixon and Reagan to the White House, dies at 79. In: Washington Post . March 29, 2020, accessed on July 24, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Katharine Q. Seelye: John Sears, Strategist for Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 79. In: New York Times . March 27, 2020, accessed on July 24, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Mark Hertsgaard: Ghost of Watergate. In: The time . January 2, 2000, accessed April 29, 2020 .