Reagan V-P hunt includes women

Two women, GOP stalwart Anna Armstrong and Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, are on a list of 18 possible running mates for Ronald Reagan that will be used in a nationwide survey poll, campaign sources said. Mr. Reagan's top political adviser, Dick Wirthlim, will begin the survey this week to help in selecting a running mate who would most help the former California governor be elected president.

The aide declined to identify those on the list, but others said it included Mrs. Armstrong, a former presidential assistant and ambassador to Britain, and Mrs. Kassebaum, the junior senator from Kansas and daughter of Alf Landon, the 1936 GOP presidential candidate.

Mr. Wirthlim said others who sought the 1980 GOP presidential nomination -- except for now independent candidate John Anderson -- were included on the list of potential running mates. That would mean the list includes former Texas Gov. John B. Connally, Rep. Philip M. Crane of Illinois, Senate Republican leader Howard H. Baker Jr., Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, and former Ambassador George Bush, who dropped out of the race Monday.

In addition, sources said, Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon, former President Gerald Ford, Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson and Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada are included. Mr. Ford has said that under no circumstances would he take the second spot.