Reply #27: Her dad was kicked out of the John Birch Society for racism and extremism. [View All]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Schmitz

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

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, 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.<3>

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.<3>

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 and his wife, Mary, briefly separated over the incident.<3>