Was he strongly for “Sandy” O’Connor, but he was not in the Senate then?
He was not even in the House when O'Connor was nominated. I suspect that he would have been in favor of her as she was a relative unknown judicially and she was a Republican who had served as Majority Leader in the Arizona Senate. The overriding problem was to find a female Justice who would have a Conservative bent. There were not many around at the time.