Fiedler Wants Elizabeth Dole’s Transportation Seat

Former U.S. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler is seeking to replace Elizabeth Hanford Dole as U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

Fiedler, a Northridge Republican who left Congress in January, has enlisted the aid of former U.S. Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis and U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), her successor.

It could not be determined Monday whether Fiedler is being considered. A White House spokesman declined to discuss the appointment. Fiedler was not among the three women named as contenders last week by the Administration and congressional sources.

Lewis, chief executive of Union Pacific Corp., was contacted by Fiedler and “put in a word for her,” said Gary Schuster, Union Pacific vice president for corporate communications.

“He talked to some people at the White House to check on where she was,” Schuster said of Lewis. “Her name is on the list.”

Schuster said Lewis was told “the decision still hasn’t been made.”

Lewis was President Reagan’s first transportation secretary before he was replaced by Dole in February, 1983. Dole stepped down Thursday to work full time on the presidential campaign of her husband, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.)

Mike Sedell, Gallegly’s administrative assistant, said the congressman was contacted two weeks ago by Paul Clarke, Fiedler’s husband and former top congressional aide and campaign manager.

Letter to Reagan

“We did send a letter to both the President and the vice president on Ms. Fiedler’s behalf,” Sedell said. He added that Clarke indicated that the White House had expressed interest in Fiedler for the position.

Neither Fiedler nor Clarke, who are on vacation, could be reached Monday.

Fiedler, 50, is allied to Reagan and Vice President George Bush. She delivered the seconding speech when Reagan was nominated for reelection at the 1984 GOP convention in Dallas and visited the President when she left Washington in January.

She has spoken on the phone to Nancy Reagan and to Bush since returning to California, Fiedler said in an interview in April.

Fiedler has remained active in one major Los Angeles transportation issue. She has been an outspoken opponent of Metro Rail, which she has called a boondoggle that “will never be built.”

The White House is reportedly under pressure to pick a replacement for Dole soon because of pressing transportation issues, including the need to improve airline service.

Candidates include Patricia Goldman, vice chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board; Wendy Lee Gramm, an economist and senior official of the Office of Management and Budget; and Martha Hesse, chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, according to Administration and congressional sources.

The U.S. Department of Transportation establishes the nation’s transportation policy and has responsibility for aviation, railroads, urban mass transit and highway planning, development and construction. The secretary serves as principal adviser to the President on federal transportation matters.

Fiedler, elected to Congress during the Reagan landslide in 1980, gave up her seat to seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate last year. She entered politics in the late 1970s as a high-profile leader of the anti-busing movement in Los Angeles schools.

She and Clarke were indicted after state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) charged that they tried to bribe him by offering to help retire his campaign debt if he withdrew from the GOP primary. A judge subsequently threw out the indictments as groundless.

Fiedler had been a political commentator for KABC-TV’s 5 p.m. newscast for six months before she was dropped by the station in late July. She has been doing some work as a lobbyist and has pursued other business ventures since returning to Los Angeles.