Is Leavitt seeking job of EPA chief?

Mike Leavitt, administrator, Environmental Protection Agency?

Gov. Leavitt and his top aides worked feverishly Wednesday sidestepping questions about reports Utah's three-term governor was shopping his name around in Washington, D.C.

Leavitt spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour said she had not heard that Leavitt had met with Bush administration officials over the past weekend to discuss the job — soon to be vacant when EPA administrator Christy Todd Whitman resigns effective next month.

Leavitt was in the D.C. area over the weekend to give a speech.

Leavitt told a Wednesday night KSL Radio call-in show that he had not spoken to Bush personally about the job. But Leavitt didn't deny he'd spoken to administration officials about it.

However, it would be unlikely that he would speak to the president during early discussions about a top-level post. EPA administrator is a Cabinet-level position overseeing a large federal department.

"It's amazing every time I go to Washington there's speculation as to why" he's in the nation's capital, Leavitt said.

"I enjoy my job (as governor) and believe I've never been better at it," Leavitt told the radio audience.

In running in a tough primary and general re-election contest in 2000, Leavitt promised voters several times that if elected he would serve out his third four-year term, which ends in December 2004. There was speculation at the time that should then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush win the presidency, he'd tap Leavitt, a friend and fellow GOP Western governor, for some top D.C. post.

Wednesday, Gochnour declined to say if Leavitt would keep that promise. "He just doesn't feel the need" to talk about the EPA position or any speculation about future Bush administration positions, she said.

If Leavitt were to resign to take a federal post, Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, 72, would become governor, serving out the remaining 18 months of the gubernatorial term.

While speculation has arisen lately that Leavitt is preparing to run for a fourth term as governor next year, he's declined to say what he'll do. Leavitt says he'll meet with family and advisers throughout the summer and make an announcement on next year's campaign in the late summer or early fall.