John Sears (political strategist)

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John Sears
Personal details
Born(1940-07-03)July 3, 1940
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Alma materUniversity of Notre Dame (B.S.)
Georgetown University (J.D.)

John Patrick Sears (July 3, 1940 – March 26, 2020) was an American attorney, and a

Richard M. Nixon from 1969–70, and assisted both Nixon and Ronald Reagan
in their presidential campaigns.

Early life and education

Sears was born in July 1940 near Syracuse, New York,[1] the son of James L. Sears and Helen M. Fitzgerald. Sears attended Christian Brothers Academy in suburban Syracuse, a private Catholic preparatory academy. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame (B.S.,1960), and completed law school at Georgetown University (L.L.B., J.D., 1963).

Early career

Public sector

Sears worked as a

New York State Court of Appeals
from 1963-65.

Private sector

He then became a member of the New York City law firm of

Richard M. Nixon
as a colleague at this firm; at the time Nixon was a former congressman, senator, and vice-president, and unsuccessful presidential and gubernatorial candidate, working as a lawyer in private practice.

Political adviser, assists with 1968 nomination

He then joined Nixon's political staff, as Nixon was preparing a bid for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. Sears played a pivotal role[

U.S. Attorney General during the first Nixon term, was subsequently caught up as a central figure in the Watergate scandal, from 1972 to 1974.[citation needed
]

Deputy Counsel to President Nixon

Sears served as Deputy Counsel to the President from 1969-70.

Returns to private sector

Sears then left the

Washington, DC, where he worked from 1970-76. He has been a partner in the Washington law firm of Baskin and Sears since 1977.[citation needed
]

Political adviser: manages Reagan's nomination bids

Sears managed Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential bid, when Reagan ran in the Republican primaries against incumbent President Gerald Ford, and almost won the nomination.

He again managed Reagan's presidential bid in 1980 but was fired and replaced by

New Hampshire primary. Sears had run the national operation out of Washington and was a rival of Edwin Meese, Michael Deaver, and Lyn Nofziger in California. They did not trust Sears and believed he was trying to consolidate power at the expense of many longtime Reagan friends and backers.[2]

Reagan told journalist and presidential scholar

William Casey was hired to take his place. Casey (later appointed to head the Central Intelligence Agency
by President Reagan) demanded administrative control of the campaign, but had no desire to control policy and by extension the personnel choices of the Reagan campaign; this was something John Sears was boldly attempting to control.

Sears told author Craig Shirley in 2006 that after being fired from the 1980 Reagan campaign, he never spoke with either Ronald or Nancy Reagan again.[3]

Lobbyist for South African apartheid regime

In the 1980s, Sears was "the highest paid" American lobbyist for South Africa's apartheid regime, "commanding an annual fee of $500,000."[4]

Incorrectly identified as Deep Throat

In 2000

W. Mark Felt, former Deputy FBI Director was "Deep Throat".)[citation needed
]

Sears served as a political analyst for

NBC Today, the popular television broadcast, from 1984-85. He resided in McLean, Virginia. Sears died in Miami on March 26, 2020, from a heart attack.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Seelye, Katharine Q. (March 27, 2020). "John Sears, Strategist for Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  2. ISBN 978-0-87140-944-7
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1935191933
    .
  4. OCLC 959031269
    .
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