ELECTIONS ’92 : Baker Will Not Quit to Run Bush Campaign, Aide Says

James A. Baker III is not going to leave his job as secretary of state to run President Bush’s reelection campaign, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said Monday. At least not now.

Reacting to a spate of news stories suggesting that Baker and perhaps one of his key aides, Undersecretary of State Robert Zoellick, will soon try to reinvigorate the Bush campaign, Tutwiler said Bush and Baker “have never had a conversation about the possibility of the secretary of state resigning.”

She added that Zoellick has not been asked to join the campaign either.

“There is nothing factual to any of these stories,” she said. “As entertaining, as much fun as they are to read, there’s just nothing to them.”

Speculation about a possible change in Baker’s role in the Administration have been fueled by Bush’s poor showing in public opinion polls, the election-year threat posed by potential independent candidate Ross Perot, and a sense that the President’s campaign is foundering. Baker, 62, a close friend of Bush for 30 years, was considered pivotal in the President’s 1988 election victory.

While trying to quell the rumors swirling around Baker, Tutwiler also made clear that she was only discussing the situation as it exists now.

What if things change and Bush asks Baker to run the campaign, as he did four years ago?

“Well, that’s a hypothetical (question),” Tutwiler said. “I just won’t deal with it.”

“There are a number of important issues before him as secretary of state, and he will continue to work full time at this job on what I believe are . . . important matters,” she said.