Will Remain on Ticket in Fall, Quayle Declares

Vice President Dan Quayle said Friday he will remain on the Republican ticket this fall, bringing to a close 10 days of discussion in which both he and President Bush had considered the advantages and disadvantages of the vice president stepping aside.

After meeting with Bush on Friday, Quayle told key aides and political associates that he considered talk of his leaving the ticket “a closed matter.”

Asked by a reporter if he is staying, he gave a one-word answer: “Yes.”

Asked about rumors that he had offered to step down, he said, “The President and I have had a great many conversations about the campaign but I’m not going into details.”

Close associates of both men said, however, that over the last 10 days, Bush and Quayle had seriously weighed the impact of a possible Quayle departure and asked for advice on the question. The discussions appear to contradict the White House’s dismissal of rumors about Quayle and Bush’s own description of the speculation on Wednesday as “absurd.”

Quayle, according to several sources, told a meeting of staff and advisers Friday that the resignation issue was moot and that they should press ahead with preparations for the Republican National Convention next month and the fall campaign.

Calls to that effect went out to Quayle friends in Congress and the conservative movement--all designed apparently to stop the tide of rumors that Quayle might be sacrificed in order to energize a Bush campaign that is lagging far behind Clinton at the moment.

“He’s going to be on the ticket,” said Mitchell A. Daniels Jr., a former White House political director who was one of those who met with Quayle.

Bush is known to have discussed the Quayle issue with some of his closest senior advisers. One source said Secretary of State James A. Baker III was among those Bush spoke with more than once over the past 10 days on the issue and that Baker had agreed that replacing Quayle, even if the move was orchestrated to make it look like Quayle’s decision, would be a political mistake.