Chicago Fri Sep 10 2010

Jesse Jackson Jr. Ready To Criticize Rahm But Not Announce Decision On Mayoral Race

By Daniel Strauss

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. isn't quite ready to say whether he'll run for mayor but he's more than ready to criticize a potential run by Rahm Emanuel. Last night on John King U.S.A. Jackson was asked what he thought of the possibility of an Emanuel mayoral bid. He warned that if Emanuel did run, the race would no longer be about local politics, it would be about the Obama Administration:

JACKSON: Well, again, I have not made that judgment. But suffice it to say if Rahm Emanuel does make the decision to run for mayor of the city of Chicago, it will become a national campaign. This will not be a local race run by local candidates just debating just local issues. It will be about urban policy. It will be about the president's agenda. He has served as chief of staff.
The president's record will probably be brought into that campaign. And given that the president was a state senator in my Congressional district, he was a -- a U.S. senator from the state of Illinois, and he, for two years now, has a record that he has to run on, Rahm Emanuel will have to answer the questions about those communities that have been left behind --

It got more confusing when later on Jackson said Emanuel was an outsider.

JACKSON: Well, Rahm, as a member of Congress, was the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. His job was helping House Democrats regain control of Congress, not much time in Chicago.

As chief of staff, he is a -- he's an outside Washington hand. He works in Washington.

And so he has the big money. He has the fame. He has the -- potentially, the charisma. And don't get me wrong, Rahm has tremendous strengths that he brings to the debate. But there are some profound weaknesses and many of them are very local.

This is an organization town and there will be a reaction.

Jackson neglected to mention the obvious fact that Emanuel, like Jackson now, was an Illinois Congressman not so long ago. Of course, that would make it harder for Jackson to highlight the differences between himself and Emmanuel and why exactly wouldn't Jackson want to do that?

One last point. During the interview King asked Jackson what the Obama Administration had done wrong. Jackson said that "The American people are not in the mood for more federal stimulus dollars coming into the cities." Reached for comment Jackson's office said it had no additional comment on whether that meant Jackson would be against additional stimulus dollars going to Chicago.