Politics 88 : Passion of Voters Surprises Him : Jackson Draws Big Crowds in Colorado

With back-to-back Democratic contests in Colorado today and Wisconsin on Tuesday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was continuing to draw large and enthusiastic crowds of mostly white voters whose passion has sometimes surprised the candidate himself.

From the back of a flat-bed truck in Greeley, Colo., on Saturday, Jackson had 1,000 mostly white, mostly blue-collar voters lustily chanting his campaign litany of “stop drugs, save jobs.” He then sped off to duplicate the performance at two widely diverse stops.

In working-class Pueblo, south of Denver, Jackson energized a crowd of 2,000 whites and Latinos at an outdoor rally before flying off to raise $10,000 from 500 affluent supporters who pressed into the antler-festooned ballroom of the Hotel Jerome in the moneyed ski resort of Aspen to hear him tweak the liberals’ social conscience.

Arctic Fox and Reeboks

“Give anything,” he appealed to a crowd whose attire varied from Arctic fox and Reeboks to fluorescent-hued ski suits.

“Give $1,000, $100. A Gucci bag strap. Give like you live--high.”

The co-chairman of the Aspen for Jackson Committee, Andrea Hanson, an author of children’s stories, chose a black leather miniskirt and a black silk blouse with a plunging neckline for the occasion.

“He’s the best,” she said at Aspen airport as the local police, whose squad cars are Swedish Saabs, organized a motorcade. “He’s at the other end of the teeter-totter from all the others.”

On Easter Sunday, Jackson drew similarly enthusiastic crowds at a mostly Latino Catholic church, at a downtown Denver sports arena and in the upscale resort of Colorado Springs.

A Close Second

In Colorado and Wisconsin, the instincts of local politicians and the results of scattered polls suggest that Jackson is running a close second behind Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, and could win either state or both.

Stressing his themes of compassion and economic justice for working people and the poor, and his own humble origins, Jackson has concentrated in both states on communities of farmers and union members who offer the greatest potential for expanding his base of white support.

The results, to the extent that size and excitement of crowds measure real voter sentiment, tend to belie exit polls from the Illinois primary last month that suggested Jackson was appealing mainly to relatively affluent, well-educated liberals who found him a convenient vehicle for registering their dislike of the Reagan Administration.

Hart’s Natural Heir

In this state, Jackson has portrayed himself as the natural heir to former Sen. Gary Hart’s anti-Establishment constituency, and with some evident success.

“With my friend Gary Hart out of the race, I am Colorado’s favorite son,” Jackson proclaimed at the rally in Greeley, outside a food processing plant where 80 workers are on strike.

Russell Baxley, a white construction worker who came to hear Jackson, said he was inclined to agree.

“I probably would have voted for Gary Hart if he hadn’t messed up,” Baxley said. “I might even have gone for (Colorado Rep.) Pat Shroeder. But I will vote for Jesse now because he’s for the working man.”

Like a number of other voters in such crowds, Baxley said he voted for Reagan in 1984.

Sense of Exasperation

So did Carter Brooks, a Greeley telephone installer, who said he also voted for Reagan in 1980 and, as a serviceman in Vietnam, for George C. Wallace in 1972.

Brooks said he was driven to a conservative Republican candidate in the last two elections by a sense of exasperation with social programs from which he gained little or nothing.

“I was tired of presidents’ giving away all these things, my paying taxes and getting nothing for it,” Brooks said. “But things have gotten worse with Reagan. There are no giveaways and we’re worse off.”

Jackson’s theme of economic justice struck a strong chord in him, Brooks continued. “In our company, all the managers get bonuses, and we’ve got workers drawing food stamps. That’s got to stop.”

“Wallace and Jesse are for the working people,” he said. “I thought Reagan was, too, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Jackson told reporters traveling with him that the size and enthusiasm of the crowds he was attracting in Colorado and Wisconsin were “delightfully surprising.” Reaching for a biblical phrase, he attributed his appeal partly to what he calls the “certainness of the trumpet” that he sounds--the sense of conviction that he is able to project.

‘He Makes Sense’

In affluent Aspen, some of the 50 or so supporters who paid $100 to $1,000 to attend a private reception for Jackson confirmed this facet of Jackson’s appeal.

“He makes sense. It is hard not to believe him, he seems so sincere,” said Susan Hawkins, who runs a small printing business in Aspen.

Hawkins said she had taken almost no interest in politics before, and had not voted in a presidential election in 20 years, but that now she had contributed to Jackson’s campaign and would vote for him in the local caucus.

“I have just never seen anything about him that wasn’t positive,” she said. “He seems so believable. I hope he is.”

Such sentiments have begun to translate into dollars for Jackson, who nevertheless continues to run what he calls “the poorest campaign, with the richest message.”

According to Jackson’s Chicago headquarters, the campaign took in $2.1 million in March, more than in any previous month. This figure does not include federal matching funds.

Mail contributions, campaign officials said, have tripled since the Super Tuesday primaries on March 8 to a current level of $60,000 a day.