By RON FOURNIER
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Linda Chavez withdrew Tuesday as President-elect Bush’s nominee to be secretary of labor because of questions and controversy over an illegal immigrant who lived in her home in the early 1990s.

“I believe that I would have made a great secretary of labor,” she said at a news conference. “I have decided that I am becoming a distraction and therefore I have asked President-elect Bush to withdraw my name as secretary of labor.”

Bush, in a statement, called her “a good person with a great deal of compassion” and said he was disappointed she would not be in his Cabinet.

Chavez stepped aside under pressure from Bush’s political team, according to three Republican officials involved in the case.

There was no immediate word on a replacement.

Other prospects who had been on the Bush list for the labor department included Missouri Rep. Jim Talent, defeated nominee for governor of Missouri; Rep. Jennifer Dunn of Washington; and Rich Bond, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Chavez made her announcement at Bush transition headquarters.

“My, what a difference a week makes,” she began, prefacing her withdrawal with a description of the help she got from others during a difficult childhood. She said that she vowed then she would always be there for other people, and said that while “I am not Mother Teresa