Iacocca Refuses Senate Spot; May Retire Soon
Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee A. Iacocca said Monday that he turned down an offered appointment to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, and strongly suggested that his retirement from Chrysler is drawing near.
Iacocca, 66, said Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey visited him in Detroit last week to ask if he would accept an appointment to fill the vacancy created by the death of Sen. John Heinz in an April 4 plane crash.
On past occasions when he was approached about a political career, Iacocca has begged off on grounds that he wasn’t suited to politics. This time, he indicated that he wanted to retire.
“After 45 years of hard work, my family and I are looking forward to what I’ll simply call a more normal life,” Iacocca said in a statement released by Chrysler. He said he was “not prepared to make the commitment necessary” to be a senator.
Casey will appoint an interim senator who would then run in a special election in November. Though Iacocca lives and votes in Michigan, he could serve from Pennsylvania as long as he lived in the state by the time of the special election. Iacocca grew up in Allentown, Pa., and remains an active alumnus of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University.
The timing of Iacocca’s departure has been the subject of much speculation. Though his performance has drawn mixed reviews from analysts lately, Chrysler’s board has repeatedly offered him financial inducements to stay on beyond age 65. He turns 67 in October.
If he stays until next January, for example, he will receive nearly $2 million in additional Chrysler stock.
But some Chrysler insiders are betting that he will leave his day-to-day responsibilities by the end of this year. One theory has him staying on as chairman but relinquishing the role of chief executive.
Company executives say his March 30 marriage to Darrien Earle of Los Angeles has strengthened his resolve to retire, and she is said to be urging him to do so.
However, Iacocca has said he is loathe to leave while Chrysler is in such poor financial shape. He reiterated that concern Monday while leaving open the date of his retirement.
“I have made a commitment to Chrysler to remain on the job to oversee the restructuring of the company to ensure it will be competitive in the years ahead,” he said. But he added, “It’s no secret that at age 66 I am nearing an end of my automotive career.”
A recovery of the U.S. economy could quickly revive Chrysler’s fortunes, analysts say, though its long-term survival is considered questionable. The weakest of the three U.S.-based auto firms, Chrysler recently reported a first-quarter loss of $341 million.
Iacocca’s likeliest successor is thought to be Robert Lutz, who was recently promoted to president. Lutz, 59, was in the news Sunday when he crashed his personal helicopter at an airport in Ann Arbor, Mich. A former Marine pilot and race car driver, Lutz was slightly injured.
Iacocca, who engineered a Chrysler turnaround after being fired from the presidency of Ford Motor Co. in 1978, has been an outspoken executive whose views on public policy issues and success at Chrysler led to a brief Iacocca-for-President movement among Democrats in 1986.
