Tate Not Willing to Be Press Secretary

Sheila Tate, President-elect George Bush’s campaign and transition press secretary, said Friday that she has taken herself out of the competition for the same job in the Bush White House.

“I found myself in almost a permanent bad mood, thinking about what did I want to do,” Tate said in an interview from transition headquarters in Washington. “I talked to members of my family, and I just had a reluctance to give up the good personal life.”

Tate, 47, succeeded Peter Teeley as Bush’s campaign press secretary six months ago, giving up an executive position with the Washington public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton to do so.

Speculation had been rampant that Tate, who served as press secretary to First Lady Nancy Reagan during President Reagan’s first term, would be named by Bush as White House press secretary. No woman has ever held that position.