John Dwyer Heubusch (/ˈhaɪbʊʃ/ HY-buush; born 1958) is an American political and private-sector executive and author, best known for his current work directing the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, overseeing the legacy of the 40th President of the United States.
[1][2] Heubusch has worked as a Pentagon analyst, staffer on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Labor, the head of a major national Republican campaign committee, and a Fortune 500 executive.
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.
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 some poorly designed weapons systems.
[5] Their efforts led to: The Washington Monthly magazine looked backed in 1993 at the individuals who had contributed most to cleaning up the Pentagon during the Reagan era.
[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.
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 that forced a government shutdown, 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 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.
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 Senator Bob Kerrey for 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.
[36] Heubusch left Waitt at the end of 2007 to serve 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.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/reagan-is-america-s-favorite-and-here-s-why/ar-AARr9tr On April 7, 2023, Heubusch was sanctioned by the Chinese government after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen gave a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
"[49] Publishers Weekly noted "Heubusch’s thought-provoking conceit" and "interesting premise," but criticized his "dense exposition and clunky characterization.