County. His views were very conservative even by the standards of Orange County. Schmitz once joked that he had joined the John Birch Society in order to court the moderate vote in Orange County. He opposed sex education in public schools. He believed citizens should be able to carry loaded guns in their cars. He was also critical of the civil unrest that characterized the mid-1960s. He called the Watts riots of 1965 "a Communist operation," and a year later sponsored a bill, which failed to pass, to investigate the backgrounds of teachers suspected of Communist affiliations. He also believed that state universities should be sold to private corporations as a curb against student protests. US Representative and presidential campaign Schmitz served in the state senate until 1970, when he won a special election to succeed the late James B. Utt in the House from California's 35th congressional district. He won a full term in November. When Richard M. Nixon, whose permanent residence at the time was in San Clemente—located in Schmitz's district— first went to China in 1972, Schmitz was asked if he supported President Nixon's going to China. Schmitz replied, "I didn't care that Nixon went to China, I was only upset that he came back." Nixon recruited Orange County Tax Assessor Andrew J. Hinshaw, a more mainstream Republican, to run against Schmitz in the Republican primary for the renumbered 39th District. Schmitz was the California Chairman of John M. Ashbrook's 1972 Presidential Campaign. Angry at Nixon's role in his defeat and Nixon's perceived pivot to the left, Schmitz changed his party registration to the American Independent after being nominated as their candidate for president in the 1972 election; Tom Anderson of Tennessee was his running mate. The pair received 1,100,868 votes for 1.42% of the total. Three-time Academy Award winner and fellow John Birch Society member Walter Brennan helped Schmitz with his campaign, serving as finance chairman. Schmitz' best showings were in the West. He received 9.30 percent of the vote in Idaho, where he finished second ahead of Democrat George McGovern in the archconservative Mormon counties of Fremont, Jefferson, Madison and Lemhi. In Jefferson County Schmitz achieved the best result for a third-party presidential candidate in any non-Southern county since 1936 when William Lemke passed twenty-eight percent of the vote in the North Dakota counties of Burke, Sheridan and Hettinger. Schmitz received 7.25 percent in Alaska,