Marilyn Quayle Rules Out Succeeding to Senate Seat

Marilyn Quayle, wife of Vice President-elect Dan Quayle, said today she has withdrawn herself from consideration as a possible appointee to the Senate seat her husband will soon vacate.

“I have informed (Indiana) Governor (Robert D.) Orr that I am not interested in being appointed to fill my husband’s seat in the U.S. Senate,” she said in a brief statement issued from the Office of the Vice President-elect.

Orr, a Republican, will appoint a successor to Quayle before he turns over the governor’s office to Evan Bayh, a Democrat.

“I appreciate the confidence and support I have received from so many people in Indiana and around the country,” Mrs. Quayle, 39, who has never held public office, said in her statement.

Orr met with Marilyn Quayle on Thursday in Washington, and she emphasized that her responsibilities as the wife of the vice president and the mother of three school-age children would not allow her enough time for the Senate job, said spokesman Jim Carroll.

‘Political Consideration’

But Jeff Nesbit, spokesman for the Office of the vice president-elect, said the Quayles told him “the primary consideration was a political one.”

“The risks were too high for her to be a United States senator and have Dan Quayle in the White House,” Nesbit said. “Every vote would have been scrutinized. The bottom line, it would have hurt the Bush Administration.”

Orr is likely to name his choice to succeed Quayle after GOP senators meet for the Republican Conference in Washington on Nov. 29 and before the end of the year, said Dollyne Pettingill, the governor’s press secretary.

Among those considered as leading candidates for the Senate seat are Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut, Lt. Gov. John M. Mutz, former Indiana Secretary of State Edwin Simcox, former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Ruckelshaus, Marion County Prosecutor Stephen Goldsmith and Indiana Reps. Dan Coats and Dan Burton, both Republicans.

Mitchell Daniels, former White House political director in the Reagan Administration and an adviser to Dan Quayle during the presidential campaign, took himself out of contention Wednesday.

Marilyn Quayle, a lawyer by profession, has not practiced for many years. Considered more conservative than her husband, she has had considerable influence on his political ideology.