Joe Schwarz
John J. H. "Joe" Schwarz, M.D. (born November 15, 1937), a Republican from Michigan, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2004. He represents the state's 7th Congressional district (map)
Schwarz was born and raised in Battle Creek, Michigan, after his family moved there in 1935 so his father could work as a physician in the Veterans Administration Hospital. He attended Fremont Elementary School, W.K. Kellogg Junior High School, and graduated from Battle Creek Central High School. He played on the baseball, swimming and football teams at B.C. Central. In 1959, he received a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he played on the football team. He earned an M.D. from Wayne State University, Detroit, in 1964, completed his medical residency in Los Angeles and subsequently joined the U.S. Navy, where he served as a combat surgeon for a Marine battalion in Vietnam. He was then assigned to the U.S. Embassy at Jakarta, Indonesia, where he first met his future wife, Anne. From 1968-1970, he worked as a Central Intelligence Agency operative in Southeast Asia. After resigning from the CIA in 1970, he completed his surgical training in otolaryngology at the Harvard Medical School, where he married his first wife and had a daughter, Brennan.
He returned, with his new family, to Battle Creek in 1974, and has been a practicing physician in Battle Creek since that time. He currently sees patients at the Family Health Center in Battle Creek, a federally qualified health center. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. His first wife died in 1990, and he is divorced from his second wife. He has one daughter from his first marriage.
He served as a Battle Creek City Commissioner, 1979-1985, as mayor of Battle Creek, 1985-1987, and as a member of the Michigan Senate, 1987-2002 where he was president pro tempore, 1993-2002. He left the senate due to term-limit laws. Schwarz attempted a bid for the Republican nomination for a seat in the U.S. House in 1992 when he lost to Nick Smith in the primary for the 7th District. He co-chaired the U.S. presidential Republican primary campaign of his friend U.S. Senator John McCain in 2000, which resulted in a victory for McCain in Michigan.
Schwarz has a reputation as a solid moderate, which is fairly unusual for the 2004 freshman class of Republicans in the House. However, he is more in line with the Republican Party on extending tax cuts, a strong national defense, manufacturing liablilty reform and overhauling America's medical malpractice laws, which he says lead to frivolous lawsuits and force doctors to demur from treating patients. However, his experience as a doctor also places him firmly in the party's moderate wing on the issues of health care accessibility and embryonic stem cell research.
Schwarz was elected to represent the seventh district of Michigan, to succeed retiring Republican Nick Smith, whose voting record was much more conservative. Schwarz defeated Smith's son Brad Smith in a six-way Republican primary race. In the general election, Schwarz received 58% of the vote, while Democrat Sharon Renier received 36% and the remaining 6% was divided between the Green, Libertarian and U.S. Taxpayers Party candidates.
Schwarz is a member of Christine Todd Whitman's Its My Party Too and The Republican Main Street Partnership. He is also a member of The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Choice and Republicans For Environmental Protection.
2006 Election
Schwarz lost in the 2006 Republican primary to Tim Walberg, a former state representative who finished behind Schwarz in the primary when the south-central 7th District seat was open in 2004. Walberg was backed by the conservative political action committees Club for Growth (based in Washington, D.C.) and Right to Life of Michigan.
The race had drawn more than $1 million from outside groups; Schwarz has received support from President Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
External links
- House web site
- Campaign Web site
- Joe Schwarz is a Liberal (critical site from the conservative Club for Growth)
- United States Congress. "Joe Schwarz (id: S001161)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Voting record maintained by the Washington Post