Jackson Links Fairness With Aid to Party Ticket

Arriving in California to face his last big test of the 1988 presidential campaign, the Rev. Jesse Jackson served notice Thursday that his army of supporters may sit out the election in November if they do not believe the Democratic Party is treating him fairly.

“When people are inspired and hopeful, they work diligently,” Jackson said. “When they feel they have not been treated fairly, they are discouraged.”

Jackson’s toughest challenge in California is overcoming the perception that the race for the Democratic nomination is all but over, and that Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis is the inevitable nominee.

“The race is closer than the pundits and the media have projected. . . . California (which holds its primary June 7) will determine, in a great measure, the nominee,” Jackson insisted in an interview while flying to Los Angeles.

Jackson’s complaints of unfairness have centered on what he described as “voodoo politics,” the imbalance between the proportion of popular votes he has received and his delegate total.

He estimated that he has received 29% of the popular vote thus far, only eight fewer percentage points than Dukakis’ 37%. But in delegates, Jackson said, he is trailing 26% to 42%.

In meetings with party and elected officials, Jackson said, the campaign is “putting into motion our strategy to get our share” of delegates.

“We need to keep the people’s spirits high, and keep their faith and their hopes high, and do that by respecting their votes,” Jackson said.

He has returned to that theme repeatedly over the last few days, making comments that could be read as either warning or threat.

With his stirring oratory and populist message, Jackson has mobilized hundreds of thousands of voters who have not participated in elections before. Party leaders are worried that unless Jackson supports the ticket this fall, his supporters may not vote.

Reminding Democratic leaders of the consequences of such a defection, he has repeatedly made reference to the 1968 and 1980 elections, when deep divisions among Democrats helped Republicans gain the White House.

At a meeting in Washington with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday night, Jackson suggested that his support will hinge on whether he is satisfied with the way he and his issues have been treated.

He accused party leaders, the press and pundits of trying to take “a combination of Jackson support, a short platform (that does not address Jackson’s concerns) and win. That’s not the formula for winning.”

Jackson’s campaign strategists plan to take their complaints to party officials and to the “super delegates,” the elected officeholders who will attend the convention by virtue of the positions they hold. The super delegates are about 15% of the total.

Only about a third of the 643 super delegates have publicly committed themselves to the candidate they will support at the convention in Atlanta in July, but Dukakis has picked up three times as much super delegate support as Jackson, a Jackson aide estimated.

Jackson has also complained frequently that his campaign has been set back by unfair party rules. He often cites Puerto Rico, where he won in the popular-vote “beauty contest” but received none of the island’s 54 delegates.

Jackson arrived in Los Angeles late Thursday afternoon and proceeded to a rally at Olvera Street downtown, where he said: “We come to California with our spirits high.” Jackson then attended an event billed as a “Fund-Raiser With the Stars” at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Jackson is trailing Dukakis in polls of California Democrats, but he noted that he has a long history of working with organized labor in the state, and predicted that Californians will respond to “issues that I have cultivated throughout my campaign.”

He also said he plans to meet with West Los Angeles Jewish leaders, in hopes of avoiding the tensions that marked the New York primary, where Jackson’s relations with Jews were an overriding issue.