SHORT TAKES : Hoffa’s Son Declines to Commit

DETROIT —  James P. Hoffa, son of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, won’t say if he intends to run in the union’s first direct election next year, but supporters are wearing jackets with the logo “Friends of Hoffa.”

“I’d vote for him,” said Mike Bane, chief officer of Teamsters Local 614 in Pontiac. “Ninety-five percent of the rank and file” in Pontiac would also support the candidacy, Bane said.

Hoffa, a Detroit labor lawyer, said the jackets are “a reaffirmation of the feelings towards the Hoffa contribution to the union.” He refused to say if he would be a candidate when the 1.6-million-member union holds its elections in June, 1991.

The elections are part of a 1989 settlement of a lawsuit in which the federal government linked dozens of Teamsters executives to “a pattern of racketeering.”