Jesse Jackson’s National Rainbow Coalition got another voice and, more important, a vote in Congress on Tuesday when Jesse Jackson Jr. was elected to represent lllinois’ 2nd District.
As expected, the Democratic nominee handily defeated Republican Thomas Somer, 76 percent to 24 percent, in a special election to fill the year left on imprisoned former Rep. Mel Reynolds’ second term, according to nearly complete returns.
The victory by the younger Jackson puts the 30-year-old national field director of the National Rainbow Coalition, founded a decade ago by his father, in position to advance the organization’s liberal/progressive agenda with a visibility that is greater than any other African-American member of Congress.
“It strikes me that a young person named Jesse Jackson Jr. has an opportunity to carve out a pretty sharp profile here if he chooses,” said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of a Washington newsletter that tracks Capitol Hill politics.
As such, Jackson, even as a freshman backbencher, can be a voice not only in opposition to the conservative Republican majority but of partisan “conscience” to President Clinton, a Democratic centrist.
The election of Jackson, a member of the Democratic National Committee, makes it less likely that his father, a former Democratic presidential hopeful and a critic of Clinton’s moderate policies, will mount a threatened independent presidential challenge next year.
Moreover, Jackson’s election in his political debut launches what could become a long career and holds out the promise for succeeding where Reynolds failed: producing results for his constituents while using the South Side and south suburban district–“a microcosm of America,” as he calls it–to draw attention to problems that affect the country.
Jackson won with 98 percent of the city vote and 51 percent in the suburban portion of the district. Voter turnout was low, just 18 percent of the 344,611 eligible voters. Jackson received 47,610 votes to 15,169 for Somer, with 99 percent of the vote counted.
In declaring victory, Jackson focused on economic prosperity for the district, saying he hopes one day to see newspaper headlines that say “Motorola, Sears, Amoco, GE build plants on the South Side” as they have elsewhere.
Jackson even used the occasion of a congratulatory phone call from Clinton to lobby the president for support of a Republican-backed plan to build a regional airport near far south suburban Peotone.
“We certainly could use your help,” he told Clinton, reciting projections of jobs that would be generated by the airport, Jackson’s main economic-development proposal.
Earlier, he thanked supporters at a victory celebration in a south suburban hotel. The gala was a contrast from a much smaller, though more exuberant, affair at Jackson’s campaign headquarters two weeks ago when he won the Democratic nomination that virtually assured his election.
The ambitious and energetic congressman-elect was expected to spend little time savoring his victory.
Jackson hoped to have Tuesday’s election results certified as soon as possible so that he can be sworn in, perhaps as early as Thursday, and take to the House floor to demonstrate his opposition to Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and the GOP majority.
Jackson designated his brother Jonathan and Markham Mayor Evans Miller to head up his transition team, and voiced his preference for serving on the Way and Means, Transportation or Energy Committees.
Somer conceded shortly before 9 p.m. at a gathering in Park Forest. He urged his backers to give Jackson “110 percent” of their support. And though he has filed to run in the March primary, he said Tuesday that he will wait until after the holidays to decide whether to be a candidate next year.
Even as Jackson turns his attention to Washington, he must turn right around and file his nominating petitions by Monday for re-election to a full term in 1996. Jackson may face another Democratic primary contest March 19.
Jackson’s political touchstone was evident as he addressed a campaign rally on the eve of the election, extolling the work of the National Rainbow Coalition and referring to his role as national field director.
Among those in the audience were his father, Vice President Al Gore and Mayor Richard Daley.
“We have sought to challenge the Democratic Party and the nation since 1984 to honor Dr. (Martin Luther) King’s tradition, to be more inclusive, to fight for healthy conditions for workers and good benefits, to fight for racial justice and gender equity as the moral center,” Jackson said.
Although Jackson’s father long has been an eloquent and forceful activist for civil rights and the interests of the Democratic Party’s core constituency–minorities, labor, the poor and the working class–he has been eclipsed in recent years by Clinton and other black leaders.
Now the younger Jackson, representing another generation, has arrived as reinforcement.
Asked whether he had given his son any advice as he heads to Congress, the elder Jackson said: “Just to be prayerful. This is a victory for the heart and not just the head. The cameras can be very heady stuff, but all it does is obligate you in an even greater way to serve the people who never get the cameras.”
Laura Washington, editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter, a publication specializing in minority affairs, said the younger Jackson will be watched closely to see whether he can remain relatively independent of his influential father and live up to his potential.
“For all his experience at the Rainbow, he has no political experience to speak of. And what matters in Washington is your status, your clout, how much you can deliver in terms of past and future favors,” Washington said. “He’s starting from scratch on that.”
Rothenberg said the impending retirement of Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), the outspoken chairman of the Black Congressional Caucus, to take the helm of the NAACP indicates there is a “some sort of vacuum” that has not been filled by Illinois Democratic Reps. Bobby Rush and Luis Gutierrez, as well as senior minority representatives such as John Lewis of Georgia, Maxine Waters of California and Donald Payne of New Jersey.
Gutierrez predicted that Jackson will be warmly received within the Democratic caucus and described him as “not the typical freshman.” He recommended that Jackson use a 30-day “honeymoon” period to develop his friendships, positions and a legislative agenda.
Republican Rep. Jerry Weller of the adjoining 11th District noted that Jackson is a member of the minority party in Congress and admonished him to work in the bipartisan spirit of the Illinois delegation.
“He has a choice,” Weller said of Jackson. “He can be a workhorse or a showboat.”
