The Nation - News from Dec. 7, 1988

Ronald H. Brown, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s chief operative at last summer’s Democratic convention, entered the race for chairman of the party with a declaration that he was seeking the office as “my own man.” Brown, who also worked on the presidential campaigns of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Walter F. Mondale and Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, said at a Washington press conference he was an “independent, mainstream progressive Democrat” independent of Jackson or any other party leader. Brown said he considered himself the front-runner in what was shaping up as at least a five-way race to succeed Paul G. Kirk Jr., the Democratic National Committee chairman who announced Monday he would leave his post after four years.