Holds Same Position in Michigan : New Applicant for Lottery Post Surfaces

Michigan’s lottery chief said Monday that he is being considered for the job as director of California’s lottery even though he was overlooked at first by Gov. George Deukmejian’s aides, who misplaced his application.

Michael J. Carr, who like Deukmejian voted against a lottery in his state, said in a telephone interview that the governor’s aides contacted him Friday and admitted that they had lost his letter--the only application by the lottery director of another state.

“I’m interested in at least discussing the situation . . . and exploring whatever the possibilities are in California. . . . We had a very general discussion. No job has been offered,” Carr said.

Further Consideration

“There would have to be a lot of further discussion. A lot of further consideration,” he said. “I’m surprised there is as much attention to me and in discussing this as there apparently is.”

The $73,780 annual salary of the California lottery director would be “more than I make here, but it may not be enough difference to warrant a move. That’s something I have to take into consideration,” said Carr, who currently is paid $56,000 a year.

Carr, a 48-year-old former county clerk and commissioner in Michigan, said he would have to move a family that includes four children to California, where the cost of living is higher.

The cautious approach to organizing the lottery adopted by Deukmejian, a Republican who opposed the lottery initiative, does not trouble Carr, who has been active in Democratic politics.

Favorable Impression

“All I have heard about Gov. Deukmejian in terms of his desire to make the lottery or any of his departments run, and run well, has been good,” Carr said.

“I didn’t vote for the lottery in Michigan in 1972, either,” he said, because he had “very similar thoughts at the time that the governor of California had” in voting against the California initiative.

Under Carr’s leadership, Michigan’s lottery has added lucrative lotto games that are expected to increase total annual sales by about 50% to an estimated $850 million this fiscal year. There are about 9 million people in the state.

Deukmejian’s aides said Thursday that they had overlooked an application from a lottery director in another state. Deukmejian spokesman Larry Thomas refused to identify the applicant but it was learned that the application came from Carr.

Letter Misdirected

Thomas and Deukmejian spokesman Bob Taylor said the director’s letter expressing interest in the job was sent to the wrong section of the office.

Deukmejian, who believed he had received no applications from lottery directors, was supposed to have appointed a California director nearly four months ago under the voter-approved lottery initiative.

The governor was forced last week to resume looking for a lottery director when his top choice, Massachusetts assistant lottery director Thomas O’Heir, turned down the California salary as too low.

To prevent further delay in the start of the lottery, Deukmejian appointed the chairman of the policy-setting Lottery Commission, Howard Varner, as interim director. Varner has temporarily stepped down from his commission post.