Walker team to have familiar look

A new Gov. Olene Walker administration will look much like the old Mike Leavitt administration — with the likelihood of a few noticeable exceptions.

Most top state executives say they have promised either Leavitt, Walker or current chief of staff Rich McKeown that they will stay on through 2004, should Leavitt get the job as head of the Environmental Protection Agency and resign his seat.

The current four-year term of Leavitt/Walker will end in early January 2005. And Walker has asked top bosses to stay on, with most candidly saying they plan to remain.

But some people who may be leaving Utah to join Leavitt in D.C., once he is finally confirmed as EPA administrator, are dodging the stay-or-go question.

"We've decided not to say anything about what we in the governor's office may be doing until after the confirmation," said McKeown, an attorney who barely lost the 1995 Salt Lake mayor's race.

Likewise, Natalie Gochnour, Leavitt's communications director and spokeswoman, said she will make no public comment on her status.

Before President Bush tapped Leavitt a month ago to be EPA head, the governor was seriously considering running next year for a fourth, four-year term.

McKeown was considering leaving his post to run for mayor this year. McKeown took himself out of the mayor's race just before the mid-August candidate filing deadline, before it was known Leavitt would be nominated for the EPA and, accordingly, could bring a handful of personal staffers with him. Asked if he was sorry he decided not to run for mayor, McKeown said no; that decision wouldn't have changed had he known that Leavitt was out of the governor's race next year.

Leavitt gets to name his top aides at the EPA.

McKeown said some of the personal staff of former EPA administrator Christie Todd Whitman are still with the agency. While Leavitt has not studied current openings at the agency, "We're told there are a number of vacancies or pending vacancies" in the top ranks, McKeown said.

Rumors have been swirling that Dianne Nielson, executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and Leavitt's primary adviser during the confirmation process, will join Leavitt at the EPA.

"It's a rumor and that's all it is," she said Friday. "It's not an issue that is on the table right now. It is a matter to be dealt with after the confirmation."

Would she stay in a Walker administration?