Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 12547

Ghost haunts Jackson camp

December 20, 2001

BY LYNN SWEET WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF









It's kind of funny at first, but upon reflection, it could be real bad.

Political foes of Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) may be trying to mess with him in the March 19 primary by deliberately causing ballot confusion.

It's the old name game, and it warrants a close look by legal authorities. Last week marked a year since the presidential recount election mess in Florida ended. Let's take our local elections seriously.

Jackson, the son of the Jesse L. Jackson, is being challenged in the primary by three people: Yvonne Christian-Williams, Anthony Williams and a Jesse L. Jackson, who listed his address at 13808 S. Albany in south suburban Robbins.

There is doubt whether this other Jackson is a real candidate. I called around and could not find him, and neither could my colleague in Springfield, Dave McKinney. The so-far Phantom Jackson filed a statement of candidacy, so at least there are some fingerprints to trace. The statement was signed Dec. 12 and notarized. Phantom Jackson also filed a statement of economic interest with the Illinois secretary of state. He listed nothing on the form.

The congressman himself is wondering if he even exists. ''If Jesse L. Jackson is real, let him express himself,'' said junior Jackson's spokesman Frank Watkins. The congressman's office is launching its own probe to find the Phantom, and said Wednesday that his home is not even listed on the Cook County assessor's property tax records.

There are many paths to political victory in Illinois, with its maze of picky election rules. Waiting to see if you got more votes than other people on the ballot is merely one method of winning.

Savvy candidates with legal resources often scrutinize nominating petitions to decide if they want to try to knock rivals off the ballot. Since there are all sorts of regulations regarding proper nominating petitions, they must be circulated with near perfection in order to be challenge-proof.

Sometimes, as in this race to represent the South Side and south suburban 2nd Congressional District, another strategy is at work. And that is for a rival to heap names on the ballot, with divide, confuse and conquer as the operating theory.

I'm skeptical of innocent coincidence here, since I've seen so many ''put-ups'' and ghost candidates through the years, especially in lower-ticket races. I would not be surprised if the thinking was for one of the Williamses to pull out of the race eventually in the hopes that two Jacksons divide the vote intended for the incumbent.

So whodunit? The chief suspect now is state Sen. William Shaw, the Democrat who also is the mayor of Dolton. He is behind the candidacy of Christian-Williams, and he told McKinney his organization had nothing to do with Phantom Jackson. What fuels my belief that someone is behind Phantom Jackson, however, is the number of signatures he filed: some 4,000. A minimum of 600 signatures are needed, and rounding up 4,000 names is a major undertaking.

Rep. Jackson thinks these signatures were obtained by circulators who said they were doing it for him.

By the way, there is no consistency or logic in the number of valid signatures a person needs to qualify for the ballot in Illinois.

A Democrat or Republican candidate for the Senate or a statewide office needs a minimum of 5,000 names; a Democrat running for Cook County Board president or a seat on the Board of Review (the agency that handles property tax appeals) requires 7,120 signatures.

If people circulated petitions for Phantom Jackson after Dec. 10--when Rep. Jackson filed his petitions--they could be in legal trouble and should know that Rep. Jackson is intent on whipping up vote fraud investigations in the offices of the Cook County state's attorney, the attorney general and the U.S. attorney.

Rep. Jackson is not the only one with his name to hold office in Illinois, by the way. In 1981-1982, a Republican by the name of Jesse Jackson, a boxer and auto parts jobber, was a state representative from a Far South Side district.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 12547

Rep. Jackson loses round 1

January 15, 2002

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER








U.S. Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-Chicago) lost the first round Monday in his fight with the Shaw twins--state Rep. Bill (D-Dolton) and Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Bob--to see if they are behind the mysterious "Jesse L. Jackson" of Robbins who popped up on the ballot with Jackson.

Congressman Jackson's lawyers sought court approval for a short-cut process that would let them start interviewing the Shaws and other alleged co-conspirators under oath before Jackson filed a lawsuit against them. The Shaws deny they drafted the second Jesse L. Jackson into the race.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Aaron Jaffe told Jackson's attorneys to go ahead and file a lawsuit first, using the standard procedure. Congressman Jackson's attorneys said they would file that lawsuit this morning.

On another front, a different attorney for the congressman will appear before the state electoral board this afternoon, asking to have Jackson of Robbins kicked off the ballot for allegedly fabricating a middle initial "L" to siphon a greater number of votes from the congressman.

On Monday, Jaffe asked Larry Rogers Sr., one of Congressman Jackson's attorneys, why Jackson did not file a regular suit. Rogers said he wanted to find out "Who dunit": Which Shaw brother and which Shaw employee played roles in recruiting homeless men to circulate petitions for Jackson of Robbins?

Starting discovery before filing the suit would give a better idea of whom to name as a defendant, said Rogers. He and Congressman Jackson's other attorneys have taken 10 videotaped depositions and gathered 50 affidavits outlining what they call a "scheme of fraud" against the congressman and the voters of the 2nd District.

Homeless men from the Roseland Community Center said in the depositions that emissaries from the Shaws promised them $5 a page to collect signatures for a man they believed to be Congressman Jackson. One of the men said that after submitting four pages of signatures he gathered himself, the Shaws had him sign another 17 pages he did not circulate.

Congressman Jackson's attorneys said they handed copies of all the information they had gathered to the U.S. attorney's office and the state attorney general on Friday and to Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine on Monday.

Christopher Mallette, who represents the Shaws, scoffed at Rogers' argument that the homeless men would have rejected the $5-a-page job had they suspected they were gathering signatures for a different Jesse Jackson.

The suit Congressman Jackson's attorneys plan to file today will name Jesse L. Jackson of Robbins as the defendant and the Shaw brothers and their employees who gathered signatures for Jackson of Robbins as "Respondents in discovery," which means they could be added as defendants after the court orders them to submit under oath to questions by Jackson's attorneys.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

I'm betting Michael Moore is behind this....

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1742

Either way, in the end do I get to shoot him and his dad?

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