Rep. Dan Coats to Take Quayle Seat in Senate

Vice President-elect Dan Quayle will be replaced in the Senate by Republican Rep. Dan Coats, a former aide recently elected to a fifth term as an Indiana congressman, Indiana Gov. Robert D. Orr announced today.

Coats, 45, was elected in 1980 to fill the 4th Congressional District seat Quayle vacated to run for the Senate. He worked in Quayle’s congressional office in Ft. Wayne from 1976 to 1980 and was known to have Quayle’s backing in the jockeying to pick a new senator for Indiana.

In the House, Coats has generally compiled favorable ratings from conservative groups, supporting aid to the Nicaraguan Contras and to the Angolan rebels. In 1984, he attempted to attach an amendment to an omnibus education bill that would have cut off federal aid to schools and states banning voluntary school prayer. The amendment was defeated.

Coats will serve as an appointed senator until a special election is held in 1990 for the remaining two years of Quayle’s term. An election for a full six-year Senate term will be held in 1992.

House Election

Coats’ selection means that a special election will be held to fill his House seat, probably in March.

His selection will leave the total of Senate Republicans in the incoming 101st Congress at 45. The Democrats will be in the majority with 55 seats.

Party sources said that in selecting Coats, Orr was hoping to find a politician with a strong enough political and financial base to withstand a challenge for his seat in either 1990 or 1992.

Several other names had been mentioned as potential candidates for Quayle’s seat, including former White House political director Mitchell Daniels, a political protege of the state’s other senator, Republican Richard Lugar. Daniels took himself out of contention several weeks ago, as did Marilyn Quayle, wife of the vice president-elect.