Brock Plan to Quit to Aid Dole Reported

Labor Secretary William E. Brock III plans to resign Thursday to become chairman of Sen. Bob Dole’s unannounced campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, Republican sources said Tuesday night.

Sources who asked not to be identified said Brock would step down Thursday. The Labor Department said it could not confirm the report.

“I can’t give you any confirmation on it,” David Demarest, an assistant labor secretary, said late Tuesday.

However, other sources close to Brock confirmed that he would step down, but declined to give a timetable.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Brock would announce his resignation “soon,” but would likely remain in the job “into November.”

Brock, a former congressman and senator from Tennessee, and chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1977 to 1981, would bring a reputation as a strong political organizer to Dole’s campaign, which runs second behind Vice President George Bush’s in the early polls.

Dole is expected to announce his candidacy Nov. 9.

Brock had been approached by several Republican presidential campaigns in recent weeks, including those of Dole (R-Kan.), Bush and Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), according to close Brock associates.

The labor secretary has, in personal conversations, expressed interest in heading the State, Defense or Treasury departments if Republicans retain control of the White House in the 1988 election.

There was no immediate word on any likely successor for Brock.

Brock would become the second member of President Reagan’s Cabinet to resign to help Dole. Former Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole gave up her job recently to devote full time to her husband’s candidacy.

Campaign officials said that Robert Ellsworth, a longtime Dole friend who has been running the campaign, would remain as a senior adviser.

Brock became labor secretary in 1985 and has been credited with an improvement in relations between President Reagan and organized labor. Brock and Dole served together in both the House and the Senate.

As little as two weeks ago, Brock had called his senior advisers into his office, amid speculation that he was about to step down, to say that he planned to remain in his job at least through Thanksgiving.

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