Political party Reform Name Jack Gargan | Role Politician | |
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Full Name John "Jack" Gargan Born October 20, 1930 (age 93) ( 1930-10-20 ) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Party Reform Party of the United States of America | ||
John "Jack" Gargan (born October 20, 1930) is a retired financial consultant in the United States who became the second chairman of the Reform Party (after Russ Verney) started by Ross Perot. He was ousted from this position in a "palace coup" questionably called convention by a 109–31 vote in February 2000. He asked his supporters to boycott the illrgally-called convention. He is also known for the creation of Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out (T.H.R.O.). An organization whose platform was to vote out all incumbent members of congress and to set term limits on all members of Congress. He is considered "The father of the American Term Limits movement..
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Life and career
John “Jack" Gargan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 20, 1930. In March 1932, Gargan’s father died and he was orphaned. (He was not "orphaned" in the popular sense of the word, usually considered to be the death of both parents when still a child.; he remained with his biological mother, Frances Gargan Beck, through high school; his mother died November 13, 1994 at the age of 91.) Gargan graduated from Prospect Park High School in June, 1948. In 2002 He and his brother, James "Jim" Gargan were two of the twenty graduates chosen to be in the Prospect Park High School "Hall of Fame". He joined the Pennsylvania National Guard, 111th Regimental Combat Team in October, 1947 then from there Mr Gargan served in the US Navy and was honorably discharged in July. 1952, and then served in the US Army and was honorably discharged in July 1954. [corrected by myself, John J. Gargan]
Following his service in the military, Gargan attended Birmingham-Southern College and graduated in March, 1957 with a degree in Business Administration. After graduation, Gargan moved to Florida and attended Stetson University College of Law in 1970.
Gargan had a career as an insurance agent and financial consultant since 1957 as well as a professional handwriting analyst since 1962. He was an adjunct professor of Finance from 1970 until 1986. He was recognized by The Chicago Board of Trade as one of the "outstanding instructors in finance in the USA"
In 1984, Gargan became the founder and President and CEO of The International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC). Now headquartered in Middletown Ohio, it is the premier and largest professional associations for financial consultants in the world.
In 1985 he founded The MacGeoghegan Family Society and in 1990 in a nationally televised event was honored as the first Irish High Chief to be elected and inaugurated in more than 350 years.
In Florida in 1990, Gargan, serving without compensation for most of the two-year campaign, founded T.H.R.O. (Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out), took $50,000 from his retirement fund to seed a series of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" newspaper ads (a reference to a famous quote from the 1976 political and mass media satire movie, Network), Over the next two years more than 300,000 supporters contributed to the campaign. In addition to holding hundreds of town hall meetings in all fifty states and appearing on more than a thousand radio and TV shows (including just about all the "biggies" like "Donohue", "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition", he ran 633 full-page newspaper advertisements denouncing U.S. Congress for recklessly increasing the national debt, pandering to special interests and voting for legislative pay raises at a time when average wages nationwide were not increasing. For his efforts Gargan was named Time Magazine "Hero of the Week" and was featured in full-color, multi-page cover stories in U.S.A.TODAY and the Orlando SUN weekend inserts. More importantly, there were 124 new members of Congress in the 1992 elections. more than ten times the number of incumbents defeated in prior years!
He was a guest speaker at the 2000 Libertarian National Convention.as well as at the Harvard Law School Forum in 1999.
In 1998, Gargan ran on the Reform Party ticket for the United States House of Representatives, 5th Congressional District seat against Democrat Karen Thurman. Gargan received 33.7% of the vote (the highest vote count for a third party candidate [not "Independent"] in the history of the US but still lost the election to Thurman. In 2002, Gargan ran again for the seat, this time as an independent in a three-way race. He received 3.39% of the vote. In this race, the Democratic incumbent Karen Thurman was defeated by Republican Ginny Brown-Waite. In 1994 with a "warchest" of only $68,000, he ran for Governor of Florida, getting the third highest vote count in a field of nine candidates, most spending millions. Only Incumbent Governor Lawton Chiles and Republican, Jeb Bush got more votes Chiles was the eventual winner if that election.
Early political career
Gargan ran for Tampa Bay City Council in 1976 as "The Shoestring Candidate" Spending only $4.56 as a protest candidate while others were spending upwards of $40,000 in a campaign for this Part-time position paying only $9,000 annually, but lost 2 to 1 to Sandra Freedman, later elected Mayor of Tampa. In 1984, angry over the ease with which charlatans were able to register as authorized financial planners, Gargan submitted his dog, “Beauregard, for membership in the International Association for Financial Planning. The half-Schnauser, half-poodle received a membership card in the name Boris ‘Bo’ Regaard, CFP, CLU Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter.
Publications
Jack Gargan is the author of How to Avoid Income Taxes and Estate taxes - Twenty-four Legal Ways To Keep your Money out of Uncle Sam's Pockets, How to Avoid Estate Taxes, The Complete Guide to Estate Planning, (a Fortune magazine Book-Of-The-Month selection), Milking Your Business for all its Worth, Money Management For Newlyweds And Other Beginners, and Growing Up Fast, Poor, Cold, and Hungry - A First-hand Account Of Life In The Great Depression:
He has current or past listings in Marquis' Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Strathmere's Who's Who and International Men of Achievement, a British Publication.