‘Make America Better,’ Jackson Urges State Party

In a speech laced with references to national security and party unity, Jesse Jackson on Sunday addressed 1,000 Democratic activists in a state that offers Jackson his last chance to shore up his appeal among mainstream white Democrats.

Unless things change dramatically for Jackson between now and California’s June 7 primary, he will return to the state still stigmatized as unelectable, although he closely trails the party’s front-runner.

“Let our mission be clearly stated. It is to keep America strong and to make America better,” Jackson said in his opening remarks before the state Democratic Party’s annual convention here. Jackson was the only Democratic presidential candidate to attend.

Other candidates stayed away even though the primary, which traditionally comes last and matters least, is likely to count for more this year, as the Democrats struggle down to the wire to determine their nominee.

Although the primary is less than three months away, the convention lost much of its national drawing power when party leaders decided that, in the interests of unity, the state party would not endorse a presidential candidate. That decision was a bit ironic, considering a recent appellate court decision that restored the right of political parties in California to endorse after more than 70 years.

Besides providing a forum for Jackson, the convention offered the party’s one candidate for major statewide office--Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, who is running for Republican Pete Wilson’s U.S. Senate seat--an early chance to rally the party behind him and shake off the image of a lackluster campaigner.

Jackson came to the convention with a message that many in his party believe could be a key to success in November--the idea that America is weak economically, not militarily, that the nation is vulnerable--not to the “Russian bear,” as Jackson put it--but to foreign investors who are buying up our financial assets.

“We have a first-class military, but our deficit and our debt is making us vulnerable. When someone or some nation has you by your energy and by your capital, it can make your military engage in exercises it did not intend to engage in,” Jackson said.

In the war against drugs--a constant theme of Jackson’s campaign--he said he would beef up the strength of both the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard.

In other ways, however, Jackson’s message remained controversial. At the convention, his views on the Arab-Israeli crisis paralleled those of Arab-Americans here. They took a position that was adamantly opposed by state Democratic Chairman Peter Kelly.

In one part of the convention hall, Kelly fought to block an amendment to the party platform calling for a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many amendment backers were Jackson supporters.

Meanwhile, in the main hall, Jackson was urging a policy of “land for peace” in the occupied areas and an end to that occupation. He called for a “move toward mutual recognition and mutual security. Continued occupation is not a secure alternative. It is not a reasonable alternative.”

However, on most points--including Central American policy--Jackson was in step with his fellow Democrats here.

“As President, I will bring the troops out of Honduras and send the negotiators in,” Jackson said.

He ridiculed sending U.S. troops to Honduras as a shabby piece of “psychological warfare” by the Reagan Administration, aimed less at the Sandinistas than at a Congress hostile to the President’s Central American policies.

Jackson said there is no reason to believe that the Sandinistas posed a threat to the security of Honduras.

But while Jackson was one of many Democrats here to denounce the presence of U.S. troops in Honduras, he was virtually the only speaker to call for a peace settlement in Nicaragua that required the withdrawal of all foreign troops and that prohibited Soviet bases.

Once again, Jackson sidestepped the often-asked question: What would he settle for if he does not receive the nomination? But he said he would not bolt the party, and he blamed the party’s past defeats on a tendency of Democrats to give up on each other.

“We in our fury and furor self destruct,” Jackson said.

Delegate Issue

In public, at least, Jackson made no mention of his angry dispute with national Democratic leaders over the disposition of the party’s 645 uncommitted delegates. He would like these delegates to be assigned in proportion to the number of popular votes each candidate receives. Jackson currently leads the Democratic field in popular votes, but lags just behind Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in delegate numbers.

Forum for McCarthy

Before Jackson arrived, the convention belonged briefly to McCarthy, who brought a retinue of seven advisers intent on crafting the kind of convention speech that would fire up his under-funded campaign. McCarthy went right at his incumbent opponent.

“There are a lot of reasons Wilson deserves the trouble he is in,” he said. “One, of course, is that he has done so little the last five years that he is going to spend a fortune simply to tell the voters that he is a member of the U.S. Senate.”

McCarthy said his opponent was so intent on currying favor with the Republican right wing that he refused to take a stand on the nuclear arms treaty negotiated last year by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

McCarthy also held a news conference with several of the state’s leading Democratic officeholders--including Sen. Alan Cranston, Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, Controller Gray Davis and Rep. Tony Coelho of Merced, all of whom joined McCarthy to formally offer their endorsements.

Primary Speculation

In many ways, the convention was like the quiet before the storm as the Democrats, forbidden to endorse a presidential candidate, speculated on the impact of the primary.

Ann Lewis, a former political director of the Democratic National Committee and an informal adviser to Jackson, said the front-runner after California would be lucky to have amassed 40% of the delegates.

Still, Lewis, along with Cranston, said the California primary, while not deciding a winner, could well establish who the candidate is that the party should unite behind.

Numerically, there will not be a winner established by the California primary, but “it will give us the feel” of who the nominee ought to be, Cranston said.

Some candidates did receive endorsements. Contra Costa County Supervisor Sunne McPeak won 82% support in the pre-endorsing caucus of local party leaders Feb. 21 in her Democratic primary challenge to state Sen. Daniel Boatwright of Concord. Boatwright’s advisers determined a convention challenge to her endorsement would be disruptive.

Another less intense endorsement battle was won by Anna Eshoo, one of five Democrats vying for the chance to run against Rep. Ernie Konnyu, (R-San Jose).

Pete Ohanesian, a candidate backed by Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Montebello) who is one of the Assembly’s dissident “Gang of Five” challenging Brown’s leadership, was denied an endorsement recommendation. It instead went to Bob Epple. The two are seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk).