John Heubusch

Heubusch was born in Washington DC, grew up in McLean, Virginia and attended Catholic high school in Northern Virginia,[3] before graduating from Virginia Tech in 1980 with a B.A. in English and political science. He later earned an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. Heubusch began his career in 1980 as a research analyst for the Department of the Air Force's Office of Public Affairs, writing speeches and preparing the early-morning newsclips for Pentagon brass and staff.[4]

He moved to Capitol Hill in 1981, landing a job as a legislative aide to Republican Congressman Denny Smith of Oregon. Eventually, Heubusch was named as Smith's chief of staff, while also serving as a House Budget Committee staffer, with a focus on defense.[4] Rep. Smith, a conservative former fighter pilot, was keen on rooting out Pentagon waste and ensuring the safety and effectiveness of defense equipment and systems. Concerned about the poor quality of weapons testing to ensure combat readiness, Smith was instrumental in creating the Office of Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) in 1983 as part of the Defense Authorization bill. (Heubusch helped craft Smith's amendment.) The idea was to create an independent office within the Defense Department that would act as a testing watchdog; despite some good work, OT&E later became part of the cover-up of poorly designed weapons systems.[5]

Smith was forced to step up his work on the 133-member Military Reform Caucus (with Heubusch as staff director). Their efforts led to:

• The eventual abandonment of the Sergeant York (DIVAD) air-defense system. Smith's OT&E conducted tests on the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in 1984 and 1985, after the Congressman had blasted the York and called for a performance review, and the results were abysmal.[6] The director of OT&E reported the DIVAD was "not operationally effective," and shortly thereafter, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger cancelled the program after only 50 had been built.[7] Heubusch later called DIVAD "one of the lemons of the 1980s."[8]
• The re-armoring and refitting of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle by the Army. This followed the revelation of data in 1985 that, according to Heubusch at the time, showed that weapon impacts "caused problems with ammunition fires and explosions more serious than what the Army has let on."[9] In 1986, Heubusch and Smith also protested the Bradley's failure to ford streams without taking on massive amounts of water and sinking; "The Bradley doesn't swim worth a damn and the Army knows it," Heubusch told reporters.[10]
• Investigation of the Aegis air-defense system for US Navy vessels. In 1984, Smith ridiculed Navy testing of the Aegis system, saying it was conducted in secrecy, that the testing was too easy and that it produced inaccurate results. In 1988, a Navy ship in the Persian Gulf using Aegis shot down a 177-foot-long Iranian airliner (because it couldn't distinguish it from a 62-foot-long fighter), and 290 passengers were killed. Heubusch revealed that a General Accounting Office report on Aegis testing, made public in July 1988, confirmed Smith's contention that the Navy "essentially rigged the tests to prove it was easy for the ship to do what they said it would do."[11][12]

The reliably liberal Washington Monthly magazine looked backed in 1993 at the individuals who had contributed most to cleaning up the Pentagon during the Reagan era. "Many people, including a larger contingent of active-duty officers than might be guessed, played important roles in the military reform movement . . ." 17 men and women are named, among them Gary Hart and journalist James Fallows—and they include Smith and Heubusch.[13]

In 1989, Heubusch left Capitol Hill to work for Elizabeth Dole, named as Secretary of Labor under new President George H.W. Bush.[14] Heubusch became Dole's Chief of Staff.[15] When Dole left the Labor Department to head the American Red Cross in 1991, Heubusch moved with her and became vice president of communications.[16]

Following the Republican landslide of 1994, Senator Alfonse D'Amato was named head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), one of the four permanent GOP campaign operations in Washington, responsible for maintaining the new GOP majority. Instead of the parochial practice (common then and now) of naming one of his own staffers to manage the sprawling 200-person operation, D'Amato and his chief strategist, Arthur Finkelstein, sought to professionalize the committee's operations. After an intensive search process, they named Heubusch as executive director.[17] Other key hires included Jo Anne B. Barnhart as Political Director, and Gordon Hensley as Communications Director.[18] (Barnhart was a long-time aide and campaigner for Sen. William Roth, and later served as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.)

They had a tough act to follow — Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas had just piloted Republicans to a 7-seat gain and recaptured control of the Senate. The Bob Packwood sex-harassment scandal led to a costly special election, lost narrowly by GOP candidate Gordon Smith.[19] The NRSC faced several challenges beyond their control, many emanating from the two dominant Republicans of 1995–96, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. The Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 gave Bill Clinton an opportunity to marginalize his opponents, and slowed the momentum of the reform-minded Republican Congress. By late 1995, unrelenting Democratic and press attacks, and his own missteps, had turned Gingrich into a pariah through much of the country (2-to-1 unfav-fav ratio in surveys);[20] meanwhile, Dole was running for President, and allowing ambition to overshadow his Senate work. In mid-1996, Dole resigned from the Senate to campaign full-time, but by then he was behind Clinton to stay, and eventually polled less than 41% nationwide.

D'Amato remained personally devoted to Bob Dole. Heubusch and the NRSC team urged Republican Senate candidates to carve out their own individual profiles on issues. The NRSC paid particular attention to blunting the wave of millionaire political unknowns (e.g., Tom Bruggere in Oregon, Mark Warner in Virginia, Elliott Close in South Carolina) recruited that year by the Democrats.[21] It also shored up many endangered incumbents, including Bob Smith (New Hampshire), John Warner (Virginia), 75-year-old Jesse Helms and 94-year-old Strom Thurmond.[22]

Heubusch was also quick to exploit a June 1996 ruling by the US Supreme Court in a Colorado case, that allowed political parties to spend unlimited sums in campaigns, as long as the spending remained independent of candidates.[23] Heubusch immediately set up an independent arm of the NRSC to coordinate such expenditures.[24] There was aggressive independent spending in 14 Senate races "and we won nine of them", Heubusch later told the Washington Post.[25]

On Election Night, as Clinton defeated Dole by nearly 9 points and Gingrich's House Republicans lost a net 8 seats, Republicans won open Democratic seats in Alabama, Arkansas and Nebraska, while a GOP incumbent lost South Dakota. In a poor year for most Republicans, the NRSC under Heubusch had gained a net 2 seats, for a postwar GOP record total of 55 (and narrowly missed another gain in the Cleland-Millner race in Georgia). Heubusch, Barnhart and Hensley were later singled out by Roll Call newspaper in 1996 as among national "Politics' Fabulous Fifty."[26]

In 1997, Heubusch was hired by Gateway Computers, the upstart South Dakota-based electronics manufacturer, as vice president for governmental affairs, creating and heading their DC office.[27] He was a registered lobbyist from 1997 to 1999,[28] and on Gateway's behalf was a leading proponent of a ban on taxes on internet purchases. When President Bill Clinton endorsed such a moratorium in February 1998, Heubusch said: "We're looking at a wave of tremendous growth in the next 10 years no matter what legislation passes, because it's such a convenient way for someone to conduct business . . . If legislation like this doesn't pass, it will simply add to confusion for the consumer."[29]

Gateway's founder and CEO Ted Waitt, known as a maverick in the tech industry, hired Heubusch for another reason. During the mid-1990s, computer software giant Microsoft had begun to challenge hardware manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and others for control of the "desktop." Its core interest was in attempting to own the customer relationship by forcing hardware manufacturers such as Gateway to limit inclusion of nascent internet browsers to Microsoft only products, in particular Internet Explorer or "IE," instead of Netscape's "Navigator." Gateway was intent on providing customers with a choice of these new internet search tools and favored consumer personalization of the desktop. It saw Microsoft's demand as an antitrust violation given its monopolistic position in the marketplace. Microsoft provided the underlying operating system to run 95 percent of the world's personal computers at the time.

Heubusch orchestrated an effort on Capitol Hill and in the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft's practices. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in particular were critical of the company's practices and forced the issue into the public eye. The most far reaching antitrust suit brought in the history of the department in relation to the U.S. computer industry resulted. The government's case was argued by famed attorney David Boies. In U.S. v Microsoft Corporation, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft's practices were in violation of antitrust laws. His judgement ordered the company to be broken into two separate business units, one to produce the operating system and one to produce software components. After years of various appeals, lobbying by Microsoft and the election of George W. Bush which led to new appointees at the Department of Justice, the company succeeded in denuding Judge Jackson's original order and the software giant, while chastened, was allowed to continue its monopolistic practices.[30]

By 2000, Heubusch had left Washington for Gateway's new headquarters in San Diego, and became Chief of Staff, answering directly to company founder Ted Waitt.,[31] and later (in addition to Chief of Staff) vice president for strategy. One of the biggest challenges came when Waitt and Heubusch left the day-to-day management of Gateway for a single year, and in that time (calendar year 2001) the company had a loss of $1 billion, as sales fell 37% to $6.1 billion.[32] Gateway struggled after the dot-com bust and tried several strategies to return to profitability, including withdrawal from international markets, reduction in the number of retail stores and most significantly, entering the consumer electronics business. However, none of these efforts was particularly successful from a financial standpoint, and Gateway continued to suffer major losses as well as market share in the PC business.[33] By April 1, 2004, Gateway had announced that it would shut down its 188 remaining Gateway Country Stores. In March 2004, with the purchase of eMachines, Gateway management again changed, and Heubusch left his day to day executive duties to become assistant to the Chairman (Waitt) [34]

After this change, more of Heubusch's time was occupied managing the Gateway founder's charitable and investment arms, including the Avalon Capital Group, the Waitt Institute, and the Waitt Family Foundation. His foundation work in particular bore several fruits, including:

• Funding the purchase, authentication and restoration, with the National Geographic Society, of the Gnostic Gospel of Judas[35]
• Also with the National Geographic Society, executing the most extensive mapping project of the history of human migration, using DNA genome research[36]
• Organizing and funding the most thorough search to date for the lost airplane and remains of legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart, involving an unprecedented sweep throughout the South Pacific.[37]

During Heubusch's management, the Waitt Foundation became the single largest supporting organization of the National Geographic Society.[38]

During his Gateway sojourn, Heubusch kept his hand in Republican politics, serving as an adviser to Elizabeth Dole's brief campaign for President in 1999,[39] on the National Finance Committee in 2007 for John McCain's presidential campaign,[40] and on the Republican National Committee's Victory 2008 Finance Committee.[41]

Heubusch left Waitt at the end of 2007 to served briefly as CEO of Brahma Holdings, a start-up that allowed major insurance carriers to reduce their payouts for medical procedures dramatically by detecting fraud in big highly complicated cases.[42] But his time there would be brief.

Heubusch at a book signing in 2017

In March 2009, Heubusch was selected by Nancy Reagan, chairman Fred Ryan and the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute to serve as its executive director.[43] In an interview immediately thereafter, he announced that the Reagan Foundation is "about to rescue the cause of Reaganism from the jaws of Obamaism." He called the Reagan name the "most important Republican brand" in decades and one that has to be defended as the memory of the former president fades. "One key goal is for me to make that name, Reagan, relevant in the modern sense." Another is to answer critics who are attempting to attack the Reagan brand. "We want to be the ones who answer the question: What would Reagan do?"[42]

The Reagan Foundation board announced plans to help raise a $100-million endowment, centered on a celebration of the centennial of Reagan’s birthday in 2011. This would include $10 million to renovate the Library itself (in Simi Valley, California, to tell the expanding Reagan story. "This is necessary because in the over 20 years since President Reagan left office, scholars, historians, and public-policy officials have now had a chance to reflect on the contributions he made to this world, and the praise has only grown," said Heubusch. The facility "needs to reflect what history is revealing."[44]

The kickoff event was a 20th-anniversary celebration and conference on the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.[45] Obama created the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission, to celebrate the late President's centenary in 2011, but the bill provided no funding -- "which is the way Ronald Reagan would have had it," Heubusch insisted, as he plumbed hard for private donations.[46] The gifts started to roll in—e.g., the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation announced a $12.75-million gift to help fund new state-of-the art interactive gallery displays at the Museum to exemplify the important role President Reagan had on the world and in people's lives,[47] and another $15 million for the Museum and to fund 200 college scholarships from General Electric (for which Reagan worked nearly a decade as spokesman).[48]

The frenzied fundraising and activities led one writer to suggest that "Ronald Reagan is fast becoming the Elvis of the political world."[49] By February 2011, the goal Heubusch had set two years earlier was achieved -- $100 million raised.[50]

The centennial’s theme, agreed on by foundation officials and a bipartisan commission created by Congress, is "Ronald Reagan: Inspired Freedom, Changed the World"- a reference not just to his presiding over the end of the Cold War, Heubusch said, but also to "freedom from high taxes, high federal spending and useless regulations . . . It’s relevant in today’s debate, as people try to divine a way out of the economic mess we’re in."[51]

The Reagan Library is the most attended of the 14 presidential libraries—in 2011,[52] and surpassed only once in 2014 by the then-new George W. Bush Museum in Dallas.[2]

One event needed adjusting—a planned May 2011 presidential debate sponsored by the Reagan Foundation had to be postponed until September, Heubusch announced. "Although there will be a long and impressive list of Republican candidates who eventually take the field, too few have made the commitment thus far for a debate to be worthwhile in early May."[53]

In his years as Reagan Foundation chief, Heubusch has become a readily available spokesman on all Reagan matters, such as when a vial of the late President's blood was publicly auctioned in 2012,[54] or when the former First Lady suffered broken ribs in a fall that same year.[55] In 2015, Heubusch and Ed Meese, who served as Counselor to the President (1981–1985) and Attorney General (1985–1988), penned a joint op-ed to detail numerous inaccuracies in Killing Reagan, a best-selling book by Bill O'Reilly, saying, "We believe that Killing Reagan does a real disservice to our 40th president and to history itself."[56]

Today, the Reagan Foundation has nearly $350 million in assets, and an additional $125 million in the form of legacy gifts.[1]

In March 2017, Simon & Schuster (through its Howard imprint) published Heubusch's debut novel, The Shroud Conspiracy, a religious thriller concerning the turmoil after a forensic anthropologist discovers the Shroud of Turin - believed by many Christians to have been the burial cloth of Jesus Christ - is real. "Evil forces intend to use DNA from traces of blood in the fabric to clone Jesus and bring on a Second Coming of their own design," as the Washington Times described the plot.[57]

NewsMax's Jane Blakemore called it "a pulse-pounding yarn" that "Heubusch pulls off with a poise that belies his status as a first-time novelist,".[58] Steve Forbes, writing in Forbes, called it "a spectacular thriller."[59] Publishers Weekly noted "Heubusch’s thought-provoking conceit" and "interesting premise," but criticized his "dense exposition and clunky characterization." [60] The book rose to rank as Amazon's #1 best-selling hardback in three categories.

Heubusch's second novel, The Second Coming, was published in 2018. #1 New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor was quoted as saying the book is "a smart, electrifying thriller that delivers cover to cover." Peggy Noonan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal, noted "John Heubusch is brilliant. I would read anything he writes." Academy Award nominee Gary Sinise said the book "has the makings for a terrific movie." [61]

In May 2013, Heubusch was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Given six months to live, he underwent intensive chemotherapy, radiation treatments, a complicated surgery and immunotherapy treatments over a period of four years. He is presently cancer free. Heubusch and his wife, Marcella, live in the San Fernando Valley with their two children, Max and Jordana Heubusch.[62] Heubusch has a son, Brock, by his first marriage to Miriam MacPherson of San Diego, CA.[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Heubusch.

• Appearances on C-SPAN