Pushiness Seen as Kiss of Death for New U.S. Jobs

He ran as a halfback in three Rose Bowls. He ran a couple of businesses. He ran successfully for local and state office.

And now, armed with a thick folder trumpeting these accomplishments and more, Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum is running to be George Bush’s transportation secretary. Well-placed friends are distributing the promotional folder to even better-placed contacts--including, Schabarum hopes, the President-elect himself.

Schabarum’s campaign, brassy though it may be, is only one of a host being conducted by people from coast to coast who are seeking jobs in the Bush Administration. But some are cautioning the job seekers to tread carefully.

“They ought to be very discreet,” said Washington lobbyist James Lake, a key Bush campaign adviser, “because a big campaign of letter writing and phone calls tends to irritate and be counterproductive.”

Ron Walker, an executive headhunter with close ties to the Reagan Administration, said James A. Baker III, Bush’s choice as secretary of state, “is putting the word out: ‘For chris’ sake, don’t lobby. It’s the kiss of death from Bush’s standpoint.’ ”

Not everyone has gotten the message.

Sources say former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) is “putting on a full-court press” to become defense secretary. U.S. Customs Commissioner William von Raab and Associate Atty. Gen. Francis A. Keating II are enlisting a bipartisan group of key lawmakers to back them for the new post of “drug czar.”

‘Really Turned Flips’

Campaigning for a job can pay off. Richard G. Darman, chosen by Bush last week to be his budget director, “really turned flips, playing his Baker card as hard as he could,” one well-placed source said. Darman had served as deputy Treasury secretary under Baker.

Some of the job campaigns are en masse. With a liberal dose of chutzpah, the conservative Heritage Foundation recently wheeled into Bush transition headquarters a 10-foot stack of resumes, recommending 4,000 candidates for 2,000 top Administration positions. Heritage official Lou Cordia said he was well-pleased with Bush’s first seven appointments, all of whom, he claimed, appeared on the foundation’s list.

Not to be outflanked, a coalition of 88 women’s groups is sending Bush the names of hundreds of women candidates, including Peace Corps Director Loret Miller Ruppe and Social Security Commissioner Dorcas R. Hardy. They are lobbying hard to become counselor to the President and secretary of health and human services, respectively.

“What we hope to get out of this is more Republican women in senior policy-making positions in the next Administration,” said Irene Natividad, president of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Among the individual campaigns for top jobs, Schabarum’s has been one of the most unvarnished. A proponent of “privatizing” highways and public transit systems, he believes that his philosophy would work in the new Administration--and he wants Bush to know it.

To that end, he has asked entertainment mogul Jerry Weintraub, whose wife grew up with Bush’s wife, Barbara, in Connecticut, to pass along a copy of his promotional folder to Bush.

Tower’s campaign for defense secretary has been conducted largely by a circle of current and former aides known collectively as the “Tower mafia.” They have formed a fire brigade to douse questions about Tower’s qualifications and his personal life.

Call to Goldwater Urged

Some of the aides work in Tower’s Washington lobbying office. Others, including Navy Secretary William L. Ball III and Air Force Undersecretary James F. McGovern, hold top Pentagon jobs.

They have provided Tower’s financial and divorce records, documents about his accomplishments as Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and testimonials from former colleagues, including retired Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.).

After a number of newspaper stories suggested that Tower could not manage the massive Pentagon bureaucracy, an aide urged a reporter to call Goldwater for his views. “He’s waiting for your call,” the aide said.

When called, the salty Goldwater said: “John (Tower) has probably a more intimate knowledge of what goes on in the Pentagon than anyone I can think of in politics. And I know what I’m talking about.”

As for rumors about Tower’s personal life circulating through the capital, Goldwater said: “His personal life is no different from a lot of us. If we didn’t screw around a little, we’d be crazy.”

Tower aides have complained that Bush has left Tower “twisting in the wind” by not naming a defense secretary quickly. Tower, still considered the front-runner for the Pentagon post, has been hurt by the negative publicity that has arisen in the three weeks since the election, a close associate said.

“He’s taking it rather hard,” the aide said. “If you went in thinking you’d done your damnedest for 30 years and worked your heart out (for Bush) and all you got was slander and libel, it would hurt you too.”

Bids for Other Posts

Considerable jockeying has been focused on numerous key policy-making posts below department heads. Job-seekers have a problem, though, in not knowing whether many such slots will be filled by Bush’s aides or by Cabinet secretaries once they are named.

Donald Devine, former personnel director under President Reagan, said he recently heard an “old pro” counsel people against being too eager to land jobs.

Devine said the pro advised: “Don’t be too anxious. Bear in mind that it’s the first wave that takes the casualties. It’s not always good to be in the first wave.”