Jackson Cool to Capital Mayor Race : Politics: He says office has too many restrictions. Statehood for District of Columbia is now his top priority.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday all but ruled out running for mayor of the District of Columbia next year because he said the restrictions on mayors prevent them from solving their cities’ worst problems.

“The notion of Jesse being mayor (with) the rules beyond my control is unappealing,” Jackson said at a meeting with Times editors and reporters. “I’ve thought the situation through.”

Jackson, who was in Los Angeles for the abortion-rights rally Sunday and television tapings Monday, said the federal government--and particularly the White House--has too much control over spending priorities that affect local governments in numerous ways.

“It doesn’t matter who is driving the car if the gas is being siphoned off,” Jackson said when asked why inner-city blacks in particular have continued to suffer even as black mayors have been elected around the country for nearly two decades.

Jackson, who ran for President in 1984 and 1988, insists that he now plans to direct much of his energy into trying to gain statehood for the District of Columbia.

The district’s budget and its laws are overseen by Congress, and the 700,000 residents have only one non-voting delegate to Congress.

“The issue from where I stand in terms of growth and expansion,” Jackson said, “is not who will be mayor of D.C. with all those liabilities, but who, under self-determination, will be the senators, the governor, lieutenant governor. . . .”

Asked if he would be interested in one of those jobs, Jackson replied, “Well, it is premature to conclude what role I would play once we got into the kingdom.”

Always a harsh critic of the Administration of former President Ronald Reagan, Jackson said, “A combination of freezing the minimum wage for 10 years on one hand and cutting the supply of affordable houses on the other hand equals an epidemic of homelessness. That is above the level of a mayor.

“The easy access to guns and to drugs is an international issue. It is presidential stuff. So is educating those who are victimized. That is not something cities can handle without some help and some real partnership.”

Jackson recently moved from Chicago to the District of Columbia, setting off speculation that he may run for mayor even if Mayor Marion Barry, an old Jackson friend, does not step aside.

“D.C. has more people than five other states,” Jackson said. “These places have two senators and congress people who vote. D.C. pays more taxes than 10 other states. In the Vietnam War, it was third from the top in soldiers sent who died.”

A majority vote by both the Senate and the House and presidential approval would give the district statehood, but Congress has never shown much interest in making this happen.

On another topic, Jackson strongly objected to the conclusion by some political pundits that last week’s victories for black candidates in the New York mayor’s race and Virginia gubernatorial race meant that he was being eclipsed as a black leader.

David N. Dinkins was elected as New York’s first black mayor and L. Douglas Wilder apparently will become the nation’s first elected black governor. A recount is expected in the tight Virginia contest.

Jackson stayed in the background in both campaigns.

“The fact is that Doug (Wilder) ran a campaign fashioned to the contours of his state,” Jackson said. “So to try to play us off against each other is unfair and racist. . . . He didn’t ask Teddy Kennedy to campaign for him and Kennedy lives in McLean, Va.

“In New York, (the Republicans) tried to use me to whip up fear rather than hope, so we made the judgment that we must not give them that option around which to polarize.”

Jackson added, “Last week was tremendous progress for white America. Black Americans and women--we expanded in last week’s elections. White Americans matured.”