Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II, who acting Gov. Jane M. Swift has been courting as a running mate, said yesterday he has accepted a job at the Bingham Dana law firm and plans to "recede from the public stage and return to the private sector."

Those contenders are expected to now court Swift, who can put one of them in the job a year early and give him a leg up come the 2002 election. Martin said yesterday he would help Swift choose a successor.

Martin was a lawyer in private practice when then-Gov. William F. Weld tapped him as district attorney after Newman Flanagan resigned the post. Martin won out over [Eddie Jenkins], in part, because he was willing to change his party registration from independent to Republican.