Bush Names Kemp HUD Secretary

President-elect George Bush today named Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), once a combative campaign rival, to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the new Administration.

Bush hailed Kemp for his role in passing the income tax cuts of the Reagan Administration, and said he is one of the “premier architects of the opportunity society that we are trying to create.”

Kemp thanked Bush for the appointment, and said he will seek a public-private partnership to “wage war on poverty.” He paraphrased the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., saying he has an “audacious faith” in the nation’s ability to restore hope to “distressed inner cities and those who live in poverty and despair.”

Holds Strong Views

The California football pro turned New York congressman, known for holding strong views and expressing them freely, pledged to be a “good team player” and stick to his own portfolio. “I’m not going to speak on foreign policy” during Cabinet meetings, he said.

Kemp’s appointment was the only one announced by Bush at a morning press conference.

Kemp’s appointment was the eighth Bush has made for his Cabinet, with six more to go. The President-elect has said he hopes to complete the task before the Christmas weekend.

Kemp was known as one of the most ardent adherents to the supply-side theory of economics that President Reagan pursued, highlighted by the large income tax cuts of 1981. When the federal deficit ballooned, Kemp astounded fellow Republicans by declaring the deficit doesn’t count.

Bush said Kemp is “an idea man,” and said his innovative ideas are needed to solve problems in housing and other areas.

In their remarks, Bush and Kemp skipped over their one-time campaign rivalry. Kemp had sought the presidential nomination with an appeal to bedrock conservative issues, and he had said often that Bush would raise taxes despite Bush’s campaign-long pledge not to do so.

The President-elect said “it doesn’t concern me at all” that Kemp might still have national political ambitions of his own. He said Kemp is a man of “total honor and integrity.”

Asked if he had assurances that Kemp will shed his critic’s role, Bush said, “I hope he hasn’t shed it. . . . I want the objectivity of his judgment, and knowing Jack I’ll get it.”

Kemp, 53, served 18 years in Congress from a Buffalo, N.Y., district before seeking the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year.