Jackson’s Role in Chicago Mayoral Fight Stirs a Row

CHICAGO —  The sudden death of Mayor Harold Washington last week has plunged Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson into the middle of a bitter, racially divisive power struggle that could have repercussions in his national campaign.

Even white liberals closely linked to Washington say they are offended by Jackson’s muscling into a kingmaker role to crown a new mayor as well as the exclusion of white politicians from negotiations he has brokered.

The controversy could mar the national image that Jackson has sought to cultivate as the leader of a “rainbow coalition” of supporters of all races and ethnic groups rather than a one-dimensional candidate appealing only to blacks.

“He may be able to settle the Mideast but he is not able to settle Chicago,” said Alderman Lawrence Bloom, one of a handful of whites on the racially split City Council who consistently supported Washington, a black.

“Jackson is telling the people of Chicago we’re not smart enough to deal with the sudden death of the mayor. . . . He is trying to frame a dialogue in which it is a given that it has to be a black that replaces Harold.”

Jackson, who rose to national prominence as the head of Operation PUSH, the Chicago-based civil rights group, was on a tour of several Arab countries when word came Wednesday that Chicago’s first black mayor had suffered a fatal heart attack.

He cut the trip short and returned to Chicago Friday, only to be met at the airport by a procession of black political leaders who had skipped the official city memo rial service for Washington in order to be first in line to grab Jackson’s ear.

Jackson spent much of Friday and Saturday huddled with blacks on the 50-member City Council trying to reach a consensus on which of three declared black candidates to support--Aldermen Timothy Evans, Eugene Sawyer or Danny Davis. Although Jackson has made no formal endorsements, two public appearances with Evans have left little doubt that Evans is Jackson’s choice.

Meanwhile, most of the white council members, including some who had been in the Washington camp, met Saturday and again Sunday at the home of Alderman Joseph Kotlarz to discuss coming up with their own candidate. No agreement was reached, but several of the whites expressed indignation over being cut out of the discussions with blacks and over Jackson’s role in the process.

‘Deep Split’ Seen

“There is a deep split in the black community and a deep pain,” said Alderman Edwin Eisendrath, a white who represents one of the city’s stylish, liberal wards along the shores of Lake Michigan. “Under those circumstances, many of us felt that Jesse Jackson had every right to be here. But that he is here trying to pick a candidate, that is resented.”

At public appearances in front of black and Latino gatherings over the weekend, Jackson described his role as that of “a senior member of the family come home . . . to conciliate and mediate.” Although clearly leaning toward Evans, Washington’s floor leader in the council, Jackson stopped short of endorsing any candidate but urged audiences to stand behind the black-dominated council majority that had backed Washington.

“Now the wagon master has been recalled,” Jackson said at one stop. “It is our duty to protect the wagon, the vehicle, the organization . . . to protect the fragile, valuable contents.”

Although the dispute was largely an intramural one in the always rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics, William Schneider, a political analyst for the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, warned that it could undermine Jackson’s efforts to broaden his appeal beyond black voters.

“If he tries to play kingmaker and doesn’t get his man in, that could be a setback,” said Schneider, who is also a paid political consultant for The Times. “If he excludes whites, he undermines his claim of trying to build a rainbow coalition.”

By injecting himself in the middle of the mayoral succession question, Jackson appears to have gotten caught in an old-fashioned Chicago political brawl, characterized as much by fierce personal rivalries and political ambitions as any racial splits.

Evans, Jackson’s apparent choice, is viewed as a Washington-style liberal reformer who lacks the late mayor’s charisma. Sawyer, though a Washington supporter, maintained ties to the old white-dominated Democratic machine and might be expected to slow the pace of change in a city government long noted for patronage and influence peddling.

Complicating the controversy is the question of just what is considered reform here. Even when Washington was alive, many black politicians and community leaders publicly grumbled that Washington had done too little to shift lucrative city jobs and contracts away from whites and into the hands of blacks.

Controlling the Action

One veteran political strategist in the city said the real fight between not only blacks and whites on the council but among blacks themselves was over who was going to control the action.

“They want to make some cash, they’re old-line Chicago pols and they want their piece of the pie,” said the strategist, who asked not to be identified. “There’s one thing that unifies blacks and whites in the City Council like nothing else, and it’s their common interest in graft and corruption.”

Despite white complaints about Jackson, black political figures defended his involvement in the succession contest. Alderman Dorothy Tillman, a black who is backing Evans, said Jackson would be remiss if he did not try to settle the political turmoil in the black community left by Washington’s death.

Only a Black Is Acceptable

She insisted that, although Washington’s political coalition was a broad-based one that included white and Latino liberals as well as blacks, only a black would be an acceptable replacement. “We must now make sure that the next candidate will be a black candidate to carry that legacy on,” Tillman said.

Alderman David Orr, a white who is serving as interim mayor until the council chooses a permanent successor, said the racial nature of the succession debate had been overplayed, although he acknowledged that the bulk of Washington’s support was among blacks. “It’s obvious that the majority faction of that coalition under Harold Washington is the black voters,” Orr said in an interview.

Orr, who held the ceremonial post of vice mayor when Washington died, ruled himself out of the running to replace Washington on a permanent basis.

Staff writer Larry Green contributed to this story.