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Tuesday, 19 September 2006 16:24 |
 | | Roland Martin |
CHICAGO ÇƒÓ When the Rev. Al Sharpton was preparing to run for president in 2004, I was definitely not feeling it.
Largely a New York/New Jersey guy, Sharpton didnët have a track record outside of those two states to show he had serious national chops. But when I stopped by the offices of Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in the spring of that year, he was upfront and honest about why he was excited about a Sharpton run.
Sitting around the table was Jackson and Frank Watkins, the longtime political aide of Jackson Jr. and his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
We
spent a good two hours discussing the race, and Jackson admitted that
one of the great disappointments of his fatherës presidential campaigns
in 1984 and 1988 was the failure to maintain the massive political
operation they had put together. It was his desire to see Sharpton
begin to work on putting it back together. That didnët happen, but the
idea was still on the top of Jacksonës mind.
Rev. Jacksonës
first run was haphazard and largely riding on emotion. But the second
run was more efficient and organized. It was a real presidential
campaign. Yet Rev. Jackson didnët see the big picture. He got 7 million
votes, a ton of delegates and lots of respect in the party in 1988.
But, as opposed to keeping the political infrastructure in place and
thereby creating a level of independence from the party, he allowed it
to languish and fade away. Why was that critical? Because had Jackson
kept a continuous campaign team in motion, he would have been able to
lend troops, critical data and a fundraising mechanism for African-
Americans and other supporters of his "Rainbow Coalition" who wanted to
run on the local, state and national levels.
People forget
that a number of people got elected on Rev. Jacksonës coattails in 1984
and 1988. Now imagine if that political system had remained in place.
His son isnët looking to repeat the failures of the father.
As Congressman
Jackson prepares an exploratory committee for the mayor of Chicago, the
41-year-old has put together a "war room" that will serve as the nerve
center for his mayoral run ÇƒÓ if he chooses to make the move ¨?ÇƒÓ as well
as coordinate the activities of multiple other candidates who he is
supporting citywide. His election base is housed in a 7,000-square-foot
building, complete with media, fundraising and strategy meeting rooms.
It includes a $100,000 phone system that will allow his group to field
phone calls from across the city and nation. They will have the chance
to provide talking points for a given day so that all candidates
running across the city will operate from the same page and present a
unifying message.
Although it is a local operation, it is the kind of operation that can be used to run national campaigns as well.
Some have tried
to call this high-tech politics. But frankly, this is what white
politicians have been doing for some time. Why bring race into this?
Because African-American candidates have not been the beneficiaries of
such sophisticated thinking.
When former
Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk ran for the U.S. Senate a few years ago, he could
have greatly used such an operation. Right now former Maryland Rep.
Kweisi Mfume is desperately trying to beat a well-financed challenger
for the U.S. Senate, and he could also have benefited from a well-run
machine.
What
African-Americans who seek political office must understand is that the
days of getting 100 black pastors to endorse you will not win
elections. Thatës old school. What is critical is taking a scientific
and methodical approach to politics, and then creating the kind of
groundswell of support necessary to be effective. Yes, you have to have
the ability to fire up voters, but if you donët know where they are,
how they voted last, what impresses them and what will get them to the
polls, then the race is over before you even put up one yard sign.
If he is
successful at using his platform in Chicago, Jackson will have at his
disposal an apparatus that could play a critical role in determining
who gets elected in Illinois, and potentially, the United States.
What is key to
understanding Jackson is that he isnët just focusing on whatës in front
of him. He takes a long-term view of politics that is more about
building an infrastructure that could create a generation of
progressive-thinking politicians, rather than the here and now.
ï
Roland S. Martin, editor of The Chicago Defender newspaper, is author of "Speak, Brother! A Black Manës View of America."
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