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| Affiliation | Republican |
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1952-05-08 |
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| Name | Leonard F. Schmitt |
| Address |
Merrill, Wisconsin , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
May 26, 1902
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| Died | April 11, 1991
(88 years)
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| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Modifed | David
Jun 13, 2024 01:17pm |
| Tags |
Married - Army -
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| Info | Schmitt, who worked as a partner in the law firm Schmitt, Hartley, Arndorfer & Koppelman in Merrill, ran his campaign on a philosophy of decency. He hosted a 25-hour long radio program during which he answered questions from prospective voters. He funded his run for office, in part, with a "Dollars for Decency" campaign, asking for donations from the "little people" as opposed to millionaire Republicans.
Schmitt was defeated overwhelmingly, with 213,701 votes to McCarthy's 515,481. McCarthy won reelection and would go on to continue his crusade against communists until his censure in 1954. A heavy drinker, McCarthy died in 1957 of liver disease.
Schmitt was born on a Wisconsin farm and moved to Merrill with his family at age 11. He worked in a barbershop and played semi-professional baseball with the Madison Blues while attending school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Three years after graduating from law school in 1928, he became Lincoln County district attorney.
His first foray into state politics was in 1950, when he ran for governor and lost. In 1952, when Schmitt was 50 years old, he was one of six Republicans and two Democrats vying for one U.S. Senate seat. Republican Alexander Wiley, the state's other U.S. senator, had been reelected in 1950 and was serving his six-year term.
"Personal integrity, character and lack of moral standards in politics make him unfit to serve," the article read. "When I oppose a fellow on those grounds, I don’t consider that the party label justifies abandoning principles."
For his candidacy against McCarthy, Schmitt would face heat. Hundreds of people wrote hateful letters to Schmitt. He was called Benedict Arnold and a communist. But to Schmitt, McCarthy didn't represent the values of the Republican Party.
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