Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to be president of Purdue University

WASHINGTON -- Strike one name off the veepstakes list.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who briefly flirted with a presidential run last year, is slated to become president of Purdue University, according to Indiana media outlets.

The university’s Board of Trustees will meet Thursday on the West Lafayette, Ind., campus to vote on its next president. Indiana TV station WISH first reported that Daniels was up for the job; it was then confirmed by the Indianapolis Star.

The odds of Daniels securing the vote look good. Purdue is a public university and its Board of Trustees are appointed by the governor. Daniels has appointed eight of the ten current board members, three of whom were reappointed today.

Daniels’ second term as governor will end in January. The governor’s office declined to comment on the reports to the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington bureau.

Daniels pondered a bid to be president (of the United States, that is) for several months last year, urged by many in the Republican establishment who liked his record of fiscal conservatism.

In May 2011, he said he would not enter the race, citing the “interest and wishes” of his family as his primary motivator for the decision.

After Romney locked up the Republican nomination, Daniels’ name surfaced again — this time as part of the veepstakes parlor game that is an election year favorite among politics watchers. The Times/Tribune Washington Bureau’s Paul West, describing the various attributes a vice presidential pick can bring, noted Sunday that Daniels could play a “reinforcer” role, augmenting Romney’s problem-solving image.

But Daniels played coy about running on the Romney ticket. He told Fox News’ Chris Wallace in April that if he were asked to be the running mate, he’d “demand reconsideration and send Mr. Romney a list of [other] people.”

[For the Record, 2:19 p.m. PST June 19: This post has been updated to reflect that Daniels appointed eight of the 10 members of Purdue’s Board of Trustees, in accordance with Indiana law.]

melanie.mason@latimes.com