Mitchell of Maine Elected Senate’s Majority Leader : Pledges to Work With GOP Issues

WASHINGTON —  George J. Mitchell of Maine was elected Senate majority leader today by Democrats seeking a forceful new spokesman during yet another Republican reign at the White House, and he quickly promised George Bush that his initiatives will be met with “interest and enthusiasm.”

Mitchell, a 55-year-old former federal judge, easily defeated Sens. J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii. He succeeds Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who stepped aside after 12 years as the Senate’s Democratic leader to become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Asked if he would cooperate with Bush, Mitchell said he plans to meet soon with the President-elect, adding, “We hope to move forward on a broad range of issues,” including the federal deficit, health care, day care and the environment.

Mitchell also planned to meet Wednesday with Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, reelected by Republicans earlier today to a third term as their leader.

Mitchell, just elected to his second term in the Senate, has a liberal voting record but promised “to work with all the Democrats in developing a broad agenda.”

Mitchell fell only one vote short of winning the Democratic leadership post on the first ballot, picking up 27 votes. Inouye and Johnston tied for second at 14 votes each and quickly agreed to give Mitchell a unanimous victory.

Mitchell was backed by senators in all regions of the country but got his strongest support from the newer, younger senators--many of whom won their seats when he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1986.

He is looked to by many colleagues as a solid, articulate leader and speaker who can serve as a spokesman for all Democrats.

“I think the Democrats have realized the need, in the presence of a Republican Administration, to have a person who not only makes the Senate function but also be a party spokesman,” said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).

Mitchell, a former federal district judge, was appointed to the Senate in 1980 when Sen. Edmund S. Muskie resigned with two years left in his term to become secretary of state in the Carter Administration.

Mitchell established himself as an intelligent hard worker with a special ritual when deciding how to vote on a piece of legislation: He visualizes a group of Maine citizens demanding to know why he has voted a particular way.

It appears to work, for Mitchell was elected to his own six-year term in 1982. He won reelection this year with 80% support.

Mitchell has a reputation in Congress as a fair-minded man who listens to all sides of an argument.

He played an active role in the televised Iran-Contra hearings as a member of the House-Senate committee of inquiry into the scandal. Those hearings gave Mitchell a spot in the national limelight and won him many compliments for no-nonsense questioning of witnesses, including Oliver L. North, the White House aide at the center of secret efforts to sell arms to Iran.

“God does not take an interest in American politics,” Mitchell chided North when the Marine was making one of his fervent proclamations on the righteousness of the secret effort to support Nicaraguan rebels.

Mitchell will bring to the post of majority leader a far different style than Byrd, who was Democratic leader for a decade.

Byrd’s tenure was marked by his mastery and manipulation of the Senate rules. Although very secretive about his legislative dealings, Byrd displayed before the Senate his memory of poetry and history, both of which he recited at length in the chamber.

Mitchell is less of a Senate institution and far more open personally than Byrd. Although more liberal, he is described by Democratic colleagues as a consensus builder and not an ideologue.