Background
Sears was born in July 1940 in Syracuse, New York, the son of James L. Sears and Helen M. Fitzgerald.
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John Sears
Edit ProfileEducation
Sears attended Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse before going to college at the University of Notre Dame (Bachelor of Science-1960) and law school at Georgetown University (Bachelor of Laws, Juris Doctor-1963).
Career
He served as Deputy Counsel to the President from 1969-1970 before leaving to join the law firm of Gadsby & Hannah in Washington District of Columbia 1970-1976. Sears played 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 the Nixon operation by John Mitchell who considered him overly ambitious.
They didn"t trust Sears and believed he was trying to consolidate power at the expense of many longtime Reagan friends and backers.
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 boldly 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 West Mark Felt, former Deputy Federal Bureau of Investigation Director, was "Deep Throat")
Sears served as a political analyst for National Broadcasting Company Today from 1984-1985. He resides in McLean, Virginia.
Achievements
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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 William Casey on the day Reagan won the New Hampshire primary.
Membership
Sears worked as a law clerk for the New York State Court of Appeals from 1963-1965 when he became a member of the law firm of Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Alexander, Guthrie & Mitchell for two years before joining Richard M. Nixon"s staff
Connections
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Born
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Nationality
United States -
Religion
Christian -
Political Party
Republican party