A federal judge and a former U.S.senator are among the top contenders to replace John Shad as
chairman of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), government sources said.
    Also on the list of possible replacements are two current
SEC commissioners, said the sources who asked not to be named.
    Last week the White House said it would name Shad U.S.
ambassador to the Netherlands. Among those most frequently
placed on the short list of Shad's possible successors were
Kevin Duffy, a New York federal judge, and Nicholas Brady, who
served about eight months in the Senate in 1981.
    Brady, currently a managing partner with the New York
investment banking firm of Dillon, Read and Co Inc, was an
interim replacement for Sen. Harrison Williams (D-N.J.) after
Williams resigned in a congressional bribery scandal. Duffy was
SEC New York regional administrator during 1969-72.
    However, congressional sources speculated Brady may be
unwilling to take the SEC post because he is active in Vice
President George Bush's presidential campaign.
    The SEC commissioners said to be possible replacements for
Shad are Charles Cox and Edward Fleischman.
    Fleischman was a New York securities lawyer before his SEC
appointment while Cox was the commission's chief economist.
    Sen. William Proxmire, the Wisconsin Democrat whose Senate
Banking Committee would hold confirmation hearings on the new
chairman, said he hoped that Shad's successor "would be very
supportive of the division of enforcement's on-going
investigation of the scandals on Wall Street and would be
someone who did not come directly from the industry."
    The White House said on Friday it would nominate Shad, 63,
to succeed L. Paul Bremer as the U.S. ambassador to the
Netherlands.
 Reuter
