Jackson to Name Willie Brown as Presidential Campaign Chairman

California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown today will be named national chairman of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Democratic presidential campaign.

Sources close to Jackson hailed the announcement, to be made by the candidate at a Chicago news conference, as a significant development in his twin quests to enlist nationally known black political leaders in his second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and to bring experienced politicians into leadership positions in his campaign.

In Columbus, Ohio, Gerald Austin, a former consultant for the Democratic National Committee and top strategist for Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste, announced Thursday that he will be campaign manager, a post that has been empty in the Jackson campaign so far. Austin said he will direct day-to-day operations from Jackson’s Chicago headquarters. Austin also confirmed that Brown (D-San Francisco) will serve as national chairman.

Brown’s appointment culminates three years of concentrated efforts by Jackson to win over the San Francisco lawyer, who is dean of the Assembly with 22 years service and who has been Speaker almost seven years, tying him with Jesse Unruh for the longest tenure in the powerful position.

Frequent Phone Calls

In an interview last week, Brown said Jackson had met with him or called him on the telephone “15 or 20 times” in the last several years--”early in the morning, late at night, in whatever city I happen to be in.”

Brown hinted in the interview that his appointment as campaign chairman was in the offing, saying that he soon would take an unspecified role in helping to build a “campaign infrastructure” for Jackson and helping develop strategy for his presidential campaign.

Jackson, who finished third to former Vice President Walter F. Mondale and former Sen. Gary Hart in the race for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, is ranked in national polls as the front-runner in the six-man race for the 1988 nomination. Pollsters say his name recognition has helped boost him to more than 20% in the polls, while most other candidates are in the single digits.

Brown was national co-chairman of U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston’s campaign for the 1984 presiden tial nomination. Cranston (D-Calif.) dropped out of the race after failing to win any of the early primaries, and Brown remained neutral during the rest of the campaign, spurning Jackson’s pleas for support. Several other black political leaders, such as Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, also did not support Jackson in 1984 but are backing him this year.

Jackson “is a different candidate this time,” Brown said. He ran in 1984 as an outsider who attacked Democratic Party rules, Brown said, but now has moderated his rhetoric and has worked within the party structure. “He has become a quality candidate,” Brown said.

While he described Jackson as “the most singularly dedicated national candidate I’ve ever seen . . , he works harder than any candidate I’ve ever known,” Brown also acknowledged that the civil rights leader lacked a solid campaign organization.

Building Infrastructure

“One of the things I’m currently discussing with him is how to help him build an infrastructure that will relieve him of day-to-day responsibility for the management of his campaign and allow his talents as a candidate to be more fully utilized,” Brown said last week.

The Speaker could not be reached Thursday for comment on the disclosure of his impending appointment as campaign chairman, which sources said will be a part-time, unsalaried position.

Richard Hatcher, former mayor of Gary, Ind., will continue as Jackson’s campaign director, the sources said.

Jackson also is fleshing out his California campaign organization, his aides said, and plans later this month to announce the appointment of Tom Bates of Oakland, a Democratic member of the Assembly and chairman of its Human Services Committee, to be his state co-chairman.