The D.C. Joker in Jesse’s House of Cards

It all started a few weeks ago when Jesse Jackson applied for a building permit to fix up his Washington home.

He bought the home some years ago and has never lived in it. When he comes to Washington from his home in Chicago, which is often, he stays in hotels.

If anybody else had applied for a building permit, people would have said: Hey, he’s going to fix up the home so he can save a few bucks on hotel bills.

But because it was Jesse Jackson, people said: Hey, he must be getting ready to run for mayor of Washington!

This rumor has been percolating for some time. A local TV station did a poll showing nobody could beat the trouble-plagued incumbent mayor of Washington, Marion Barry, except Jesse Jackson.

And last weekend, the infant D.C. Statehood Party hosted a round-table discussion on whether to urge Jackson to run for mayor.

On one level it makes sense. It would give Jackson the credential he now lacks: holding elective office. It would also allow him to put his plans into action and show what he can do.

Which is the biggest reason I think he won’t do it. There are a bunch of others:

--If you become a mayor you have to succeed as mayor. It is put-up or shut-up time. It would give Jackson a scorecard by which he could be judged in a concrete fashion.

Talking about urban blight is easier than curing urban blight. Preaching about replacing dope with hope is easier than getting kids to do it.

Mayors exist to get things done. So what if Jackson became mayor of Washington and things didn’t get done? What if the drug problem didn’t get better? What if reading and math scores in the schools didn’t improve? What if the homeless population still didn’t have a place to stay?

Who needs that kind of trouble? Which is the same reason I figured Jackson would never accept the job of national drug czar if Mike Dukakis had won the presidency. Why take a job where the risk of failure is so high?

Currently, Jackson’s only scorecard is his popular appeal. He got 7 million votes and finished second to Dukakis in the last election. And all he had to do was go around the country and give speeches.

That is not a bad job. And it is a lot easier than being a mayor.

--Marion Barry would have to step aside. So far, Barry gives every indication of running again no matter what. Jackson could challenge him for the job, but what kind of message would that send? That Jesse Jackson will oust black incumbents to further his own career? That’s not the image Jackson wants.

--Jackson would have to negotiate with labor. That’s what mayors do. Currently, however, Jackson is the unquestioning friend of labor, always on the picket line, always marching and speaking in its support.

But what would he do if he had to actually negotiate with labor unions? What would he do if he had to deal with the problems of finite resources and infinite demands? Labor support, especially white labor support, is a key to his presidential hopes. Why risk blowing that by crossing to the other side of the negotiating table?

--It would not make history. Jackson has a keen sense of how history will judge him. He already knows he received more primary votes for President than any black in history and more convention delegates than any second-place finisher in history. Becoming the presidential or vice presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in 1992 would make history. Becoming the black mayor of America’s blackest city would not.

--If Jackson felt he needed to hold elective office, he would rather be a U.S. senator. The Senate has prestige (it is a small club), high visibility (ask Ted Kennedy) and nobody expects you personally to solve any real problems. Further, it would allow Jackson to continue to speak out on foreign affairs, a subject closer to his heart than pothole repair in Washington, D.C.

He could pick a number of states to run from: South Carolina, where he was born and grew up; North Carolina, where he went to college and became active in the civil rights movement; and Illinois, where he now lives. There is also the possibility, however slim, that Washington, D.C., might become a state and get its own senators. Jackson has been very active in pushing for D.C. statehood.

--Jackson wants to run for President again. When I asked him a few weeks ago what he would do differently in 1992 than he did in 1988, he said that if he ran again (don’t take that “if” too seriously) he would announce earlier in order to raise money earlier. For his 1984 race, he announced on Nov. 3, 1983. For his 1988 race, he announced on Oct. 10, 1987.

If he became mayor of Washington, he would be sworn in early in 1991, only months before he had to announce he was running for President. That would not look good.

--Holding elective office just to hold elective office is not that big a deal to Jackson. If he wanted to become a mayor, he could have run for mayor of Chicago. He might have won. But mayor of Washington would look like a cheap trick.

Predicting what Jesse Jackson will do is always fraught with peril, but I’m guessing Jackson will keep his eye on the prize:

He doesn’t want the mayor’s office; he wants the Oval Office.