Mitchell Still Leads Senate; Ford Succeeds Cranston

Democrats on Tuesday reelected George J. Mitchell of Maine as Senate majority leader and chose Wendell H. Ford of Kentucky as his new deputy.

Bob Dole of Kansas won another two years as head of the Republican minority, but restive GOP conservatives dumped John H. Chafee of Rhode Island from the No. 3 leadership post in favor of Thad Cochran of Mississippi.

The Democrats, who will hold a 56-44 majority in the 102nd Congress, emerged from their closed-door caucus with a show of unity. All of the top jobs were filled without contention, Mitchell said.

Mitchell, who first won the majority leader’s job two years ago in a spirited three-way race, won his second term by acclamation. Health care and campaign finance reform top his list of legislative objectives for the new Congress, he said.

Ford succeeds Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), who had served since 1977 as the assistant majority leader, or whip. Cranston said last week that he was stepping down from the post, and would leave the Senate at the end of the next Congress, because of cancer.

Ford is a new face in the Democratic leadership but a familiar one in the corridors of Congress. He has served in the Senate since 1975 and is chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.

The only other change in the Democratic leadership was the selection of Sen. Charles S. Robb of Virginia as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Robb takes over from Sen. John B. Breaux of Louisiana in the post, which regularly rotates among senators.

On the Republican side, Dole was unopposed, as was his deputy, Sen. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming. But, although the Democrats were unified, the Republicans were showing strains after losing a Senate seat in last week’s election.

Cochran, a mild-mannered conservative, unseated Chafee, perhaps the Senate’s most liberal Republican, by a vote of 22 to 21 from the chairmanship of the Senate Republican Conference.

And the more conservative of the two candidates also prevailed as Republicans filled vacant slots.

Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma defeated Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico for Republican Policy Committee chairman. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas beat Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for the job of campaign chairman.

Mitchell also announced the appointment of the Senate’s first woman sergeant-at-arms, Martha Pope, who was Mitchell’s chief of staff. The sergeant-at-arms oversees a vast pool of patronage jobs, the Senate’s doorkeepers, police and support services for senators.