Schluter ran an unsuccessful campaign for the New Jersey Senate in 1965 against Sido L. Ridolfi in the 6th Legislative District encompassing all of Mercer County.
[3] However two years later, he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly from District 6A (encompassing Mercer County outside of Trenton and Ewing) and was reelected in 1969.
However two years later in 1973 in a new 14th district encompassing Mercer, Hunterdon, Middlesex, and Morris counties, Schluter lost the seat in 1973 to Anne Clark Martindell, as Democrats took control of the State Legislature in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
In 1978 Schluter ran for the House seat again but lost in the Republican primary to Jim Courter, who went on to defeat Meyner in the general election.
By the time the race restarted, Schluter lagged far behind Democrat Jim McGreevey and Republican Brett Schundler, and garnered only 1% of the vote.
He was the author of a book, Soft Corruption: How Unethical Conduct Undermines Good Government and What To Do About It, published in spring 2017 by Rutgers University Press.