Warm Response : Jackson Seeks to Attract More White Voters

In 1984, Jesse Jackson ran for President as a protester. Now, in an effort to expand his base, he is running as a politician.

Jackson’s angry candidacy four years ago mainly attracted blacks who were tired of being taken for granted by the Democratic Party. This time, from the Deep South to the Midwest, Jackson is preaching a populist message to whites as well.

After he speaks, he wades into their midst, grabbing hands and saying: “I need your help, I need your help.”

They hug him and ask for autographs. And though some of the whites probably are turning out because Jackson is a celebrity, political professionals believe that their warm response to what the candidate is saying could mean that he is on the verge of changing from a black civil rights activist into a bona fide political leader.

Avoiding Disputes

“The issues Jesse is talking about--economic justice, the problems of the family farmer, drug abuse among young people--cut across lines of color,” said Bert Lance, former adviser to President Jimmy Carter and a close observer of Southern politics.

Showing a maturity that was missing in 1984, Jackson is ignoring slights and avoiding disputes over party rules, focusing instead on rounding up endorsements and building state organizations.

Last week in Baton Rouge, La., he courted the support of Louisiana Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, who said he is considering joining Jackson’s exploratory committee.

Edwards talked about Jackson’s “understanding of the problems in our state’s oil and gas industry.” But what Jackson really seemed to understand is that Edwards is facing a tough reelection this fall and badly needs black support to shore up his eroding standing with white voters.

The payoff for Jackson could be not only the support of a white Southern governor but crucial fund-raising help.

In Iowa, site of a key test in the presidential nominating process next February, Jackson is being enthusiastically received by dispossessed farmers and unemployed workers.

Freed from the careful image-building that constrains his lesser-known Democratic opponents, Jackson revs up the rhetoric, accusing the Reagan Administration of abandoning the family farmer and corporations of not sharing profits with their workers.

“Repeat after me,” Jackson shouted at groups of white meatpacking plant workers in Iowa and Nebraska over the weekend.

“Save the children! Support the workers! Heal the land! Invest in America!”

‘Making Sense’

The chants were returned again and again by his listeners, who urged him to formally announce his 1988 candidacy.

“He is making sense to us while these other guys are trying to make sense of their position papers,” said Tom Anderson, a white Democrat in Fort Madison who finds the other presidential hopefuls too bland.

“He is keeping faith with the common man,” said Everett Coons, a retired white engineer who heard Jackson deliver a rousing speech last week in Monroe, La.

In Nebraska, Jackson shared the podium with another undeclared Democratic candidate, Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is considered one of the country’s best political orators.

Biden shook his head in amazement as he watched Jackson work up the crowd of 500 workers who have been locked out of a meatpacking plant in a contract dispute.

‘Let’s March Together’

“So my friends, don’t let them break your spirits,” Jackson preached. “Let’s march together. . . . There is a higher power, a higher power. And we will win. We will win!” Biden, trying to move into his own remarks as the cheers for Jackson continued, said: “Uh, I’m not sure what I can say after that.”

The podium isn’t the only place where Jackson is impressing people these days. With the withdrawal from the Democratic race of Gary Hart, Jackson is the front-runner in the latest national polls.

But that is largely because of his high name recognition in this early stage and a number of factors will make it difficult for Jackson to maintain that position and win his party’s nomination.

He does not have the potent fund-raising ability of several of the other Democrats, for one thing, and his lack of government experience is also a handicap.

Demagogic Style

Moreover, his demagogic style of speaking has made him a controversial figure. In a recent nationwide Los Angeles Times Poll, 71% of Democrats questioned said they would not be inclined to support Jackson.

But, as he seeks to add frustrated whites to his black base, there is no question that Jackson will have a major say in his party’s agenda in 1988.

“Because of the Democratic Party’s dependence on the black vote, if nothing else, Jesse is in a unique position. Anybody who underestimates him is being unrealistic,” said Lance, who is advising Jackson informally.

“He has matured as a political leader,” Lance said. “He is taking advice and will not allow himself to become the issue.”

Ann Lewis, executive director of Americans for Democratic Action, is also advising Jackson unofficially and she believes that he is progressing in his effort to bridge the distance between himself and Jewish Democrats.

‘Hymietown’ Remark

Four years ago, Jackson angered Jews by referring to New York City as “Hymietown” in a conversation overheard by a reporter. He also took his time in denouncing anti-Semitic remarks made by Louis Farrakhan, the Chicago Black Muslim leader.

“Jesse is more capable of growth than any politician I have ever met,” said Lewis, who added that two recent speeches by Jackson to Jewish groups were “well received.”

Jackson, 45, acknowledged that he has matured and says the other major change since 1984 is the reception he is getting as he jets around the country making speeches and preparing to announce his candidacy later this year.

Just running for President in 1984 was a breakthrough, he said. This time the idea of a black mounting a major presidential campaign is accepted and he believes that voters will start listening to him rather than just looking at him and trying to get used to the idea of his candidacy.

‘I Am Being Received’

“I have spoken to the state legislatures in Louisiana and Texas and Mississippi. I have been invited to speak to the meatpackers in Cudahy, Wis.,” Jackson said in an interview. “This is what is different this time. Not just that I am reaching out but that I am being received. The people are reaching out.”

In an emotional event, Jackson recently was invited by the predominantly white Kiwanis Club of Pickens County, S.C., to lead a prayer breakfast. Jackson’s ancestors were slaves in Pickens County and as he grew up in nearby Greenville, S.C., in the 1950s, public facilities were segregated.

But there he was at the prayer breakfast being praised by a white preacher as “a son of the South” and “a man of prayer.”

Some of the whites were teary-eyed as Jackson urged Southern blacks and whites to build on the warmth he felt in the room.

“It is impossible to describe what that occasion meant to me,” Jackson said later.

Expected to Do Well

Because of the heavy concentration of black voters in the South, Jackson is expected to do well in the region’s March 8 primaries. But he said he believes he will pull in some white votes as well “because I helped create the New South, with opportunities for all, and whites now feel good about themselves.”

But first there is Iowa, where Jackson’s expectations have increased dramatically since Hart withdrew and left a wide open race.

A poll released Sunday by the Des Moines Register found Jackson running second in the Democratic field with 13% to Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt’s 24%. A third of the voters were still undecided with the caucuses nine months away.

Jackson was in Iowa once in the 1984 campaign but he already has spent more than a week there this year and is already putting together an organization.

“This time four years ago I had almost no relationship with rural Midwestern family farmers,” Jackson said the other day as his van rolled through southeastern Iowa.

A Rambling Answer

His ideas for the country will be better thought out this time, he has said, but there was not much proof of that in a recent interview. Asked what he would do about America’s trade deficit, he gave a rambling 10-minute answer that could be reduced to his opposition to protectionism and the need for some companies to get some breathing space--something the law already provides.

In Louisiana, he was advised by oil and gas lobbyists to talk about the need for an import fee to stem the flow of imported oil. But he could not explain how he would offset the impact of higher heating oil prices in cold parts of the country.

Details have never been Jackson’s strong point and, though he is working hard to correct that, in the end he will rise or fall on what Lance described as his “God-given ability to relate things in sentences and phrases people can understand.”