After his New York showing, Jackson can drive a hard bargain
When they write the history of this [primary], the longest chapter will be on Jackson. The man didn 't have two cents. He didn't have one television or radio ad. And look what he did!
—New York Governor Mario Cuomo
What the Rev. Jesse Jackson did in last week's New York Democratic primary was to instill an almost religious fervor for the act of voting—and specifically voting for him—in blacks. Campaigning to the edge of physical exhaustion, orating in as many as five churches a day in New York City's ghettos, at the end literally marching hundreds of parishioners from a Harlem church to a nearby polling place, Jackson inspired an outpouring of black voters without precedent in the Empire State. An estimated 270,000 blacks cast ballots, easily double the turnout for the Carter-Kennedy primary in 1980. According to various exit polls, anywhere from 84% to 92% of them pulled the voting-machine lever for Jackson, well exceeding the percentages he drew in earlier primaries in Illinois and the South.
Among New York's other minorities, Jackson ran only well enough to make his Rainbow Coalition a bit less monochromatic. He won less than a quarter of the Hispanic vote, about 10% of the votes of Asian Americans and a mere 6% to 7% of white ballots. Nonetheless, the tide of black votes pushed his statewide total to 26%, his best primary showing to date.
That performance revived, and with new urgency, the central question of the Jackson campaign: Just what does he want? Actually winning the nomination for himself is as far out of the question as ever, and Jackson disclaims any idea of bargaining for a Cabinet post or some other high-ranking job in a Democratic Administration. He recognizes that he is most effective as a preacher and civil rights leader, temperamentally unsuited to be a good, gray bureaucrat.
But Jackson's chances of playing a pivotal role at the July convention in San Francisco are growing steadily, and he may be able to drive a hard bargain with the eventual nominee for support in the fall campaign against Ronald Reagan. In the wake of his New York showing, some Jackson aides have begun talking in euphoric, kingmaker tones. Says Press Secretary Frank Watkins: "Jesse has the balance of power in the election. By sitting on his hands or running as a third-party candidate he could return Reagan to power. By throwing his support to Hart, he could eliminate Mondale. By dropping out or throwing support to Mondale, he could eliminate Hart." In Washington, the Democratic National Committee has begun studying what accommodations might be made hi the party platform to meet potential Jackson demands. Says one slightly apprehensive D.N.C. official: "If he walks in [to the convention] with 25 demands and wants floor fights on all of them, he will have done a disservice to the future ambitions of this party."