Indiana GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is thought to be on the list of presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s list of possible running mates, stated strongly Monday that he doesn’t want the job.
“If I thought that call was coming, I would disconnect the phone,” Daniels, who had considered a run for the presidency himself, told Fox News,
The Hill reports.
Asked if the Romney campaign has contacted him during its vetting process, Daniels said, “Of course not. It’s not an office I want to hold, expect to hold, have any plans to hold.”
Now in his eighth and final year as governor of Indiana, the fiscal conservative hinted that he might retire permanently from public office.
“We ought to give some time to public service, try to pay back a little rent to this country,” Daniels said. “But my goal has always been to do the best I could and then go back to private life.”
Daniels is the second potential vice presidential nominee to express a clear rejection of the position in the past few days, joining former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who told the Minnesota Star Tribune to “take my name off the list” last week.
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