John Schmitz in 1972

[Galactic Overlord]

I was looking over the 1972 presidential race, and I noticed that American Independent Party candidate John Schmitz, an uber conservative who used to serve in Congress, captured 5% of the vote in my home state of Louisiana. He didn't do this well in the rest of the south, and all his higher percentages were out west (natch, he was from California). Anyone have any sense of why this might be?

[Dr. Cynic]

I was looking over the 1972 presidential race, and I noticed that American Independent Party candidate John Schmitz, an uber conservative who used to serve in Congress, captured 5% of the vote in my home state of Louisiana. He didn't do this well in the rest of the south, and all his higher percentages were out west (natch, he was from California). Anyone have any sense of why this might be?

Another question, who did he take votes away from?

His politics could best be discribed as Fascist. His appeal was mostly to the west as a son and it was a very conservative area (Take into account populations as well).

Your second question... Nobody... His voters would be too conservative to consider Nixon, and if that was the case, you could forget them voting for McGovern.

[jokerman]

Yeah, think John Birch society and you'll get Schimtz's ideology, more or less.  He took ultra-conservative voters away from Nixon.  Despite being nominated by George Wallace's party he didn't have much appeal in the south.

[PBrunsel]

Schmitz was so conservative he was kicked out of the John Birch Society! So, he may actually make Franco look moderate.

When asked if he supported President Nixon going to China, Schmitz replied, "I didn't care that Nixon went to China, I was only upset that eh came back."

[gorkay]

Schmitz was so conservative he was kicked out of the John Birch Society! So, he may actually make Franco look moderate.

When asked if he supported President Nixon going to China, Schmitz replied, "I didn't care that Nixon went to China, I was only upset that eh came back."

I finally found something that I agree with John Schmitz about.