Jesse Jackson Jr.: Stalled Political Career?

Next Tuesday, Jesse Jackson Jr.’s ninth term as Representative of Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District is on the line. He will most likely win the election against his lesser known opponents, but it will probably be the least lopsided victory he’s enjoyed. On top of that, he could have been a front-runner in the upcoming Chicago mayoral campaign, but wound up not entering that race. All of this is because of the scandals that have dogged him over the last few weeks, both personally and politically. The heat from two particular scandals, I believe, will put whatever hope he had to push his political career past his Congressional position up in flames.

One scandal was the revelation that Jackson had an inappropriate relationship with a Washington, D.C. restaurant hostess, Giovana Huidobro. He has admitted to the relationship and says that it is a private matter that he and his wife Sandy have dealt with privately. I agree that it is a private matter, and it doesn’t sway me either way on how I would vote. But I have actually heard some people, particularly some African-American female journalists, are not happy at his choice of mistress- that is, a young, blonde, Non-African-American mistress! In some folks’ eyes, this is enough of a reason to sway their vote. “He could have at LEAST chosen a SISTAH!” Not right, especially in 2010, but it has been spoken by some.

The bigger scandal for me was Jackson’s “clarification” of his involvement at a meeting that included two Indian fundraisers who discussed raising $1 million in campaign money for Rod Blogojevich. Jackson admits being at the meeting, but claimed that the discussion about fundraising was mostly “in Hindu”, and that he didn’t understand what they were discussing. The fundraisers testified in the Blago trial that, later on the day of the meeting, they met with Blogojevich’s brother and told him that they would raise the $1 million if Jackson was appointed the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. Come on, Jesse! I know I’m not the only one that thinks you look very bad on this one. Being at a meeting where money and terms are discussed about your political future and claiming to not be part of that discussion is very weak.

It doesn’t surprise me anymore that politicians get caught up in mistress scandals or money scandals. But Jesse seemed to me to be mostly successful in keeping his nose clean. But now that he’s neck-deep in drama, he seems tainted enough to have done irreversible harm to his political career. I would be surprised if further attempts are not made to link him more strongly to the fundraising scheme, if not other scandals we don’t know about yet. And as long as these investigations are kept alive in the media, the voting public has more opportunity to think the worst of him. And I think he recognized his tarnished image when he bailed out of the mayoral race, although he said he did it because he “can’t raise enough campaign funds”. Let’s just hope for his sake that time will heal these painful political and personal wounds.

Jeff Kearney