Top Democrats line up behind Jackson Jr.

During the toughest re-election challenge in his nearly 17-year career in Congress, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has received the endorsement of Democrats from the White House to Chicago’s city hall despite a lingering ethics investigation related to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Jackson, who is locked in a primary battle with former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson in Chicago and its southern reaches, has been endorsed by President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Earlier this week, Gov. Pat Quinn also lined up behind the son of the civil rights leader.

But only Pelosi has appeared in public with Jackson, visiting the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago with the younger Jackson earlier this month. Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, and Quinn cited Jackson’s important position on the House Appropriations Committee through written statements.

Obama’s support, which Jackson trumpeted several months ago on a list of endorsements, has not been acknowledged publicly by the president. But it was confirmed in an email by an official with the Obama re-election campaign in Chicago.

Quinn this week said Jackson had done a good job for the district and predicted he would win the Democratic nomination. Asked about the ongoing investigation, he said, “Any investigation should take place and they should get all the facts.”

“I’ve known Congressman Jackson for a long time,” Quinn said. “He’s served our state well and his district well.”

The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Jackson, or someone acting on his behalf, offered to raise campaign cash for then-Gov. Blagojevich in exchange for appointing Jackson to the Senate seat vacated by Obama when he left to run for president in 2008. This week, the impeached governor reported to prison in Colorado to begin serving a 14-year sentence for numerous corruption charges, including trying to sell or trade the Senate seat.

Jackson has not been charged with wrongdoing and has repeatedly said that any House investigation will clear his name.

But Halvorson, Jackson’s opponent, has made the ethical questions a focus of her campaign in the run-up to their March 20 primary. She is the first significant challenger he has faced since he was first elected in 1995 in a largely black and urban district.

A new congressional map this year has made the district more diverse by including some rural areas and white voters Halvorson represented in the legislature and Congress. She believes the ethics probe makes Jackson vulnerable and that voters are tired of him, and she has spent big money on advertising and received backing from some African American ministers and officials, including former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones. But some experts still think she’s a longshot to win.

Halvorson dismisses Jackson’s high-level endorsements, attributing them merely to what might be expected of elected officials backing a fellow incumbent.

“Outsiders coming into this district and standing up for somebody who hasn’t done anything has been very offensive for voters,” she said. “Here he is under investigation and you’ve still got the big hitters coming out and supporting him? He’s an incumbent.”

In a recent Associated Press interview, Jackson played up the endorsements, which were part of a list he released that included south suburban mayors, fellow congressmen and his father. He said they reflected approval of his work in the district.

“They’ve seen the issues we’ve been fighting for,” he said. “I feel very confident. But I don’t take anything for granted.”

Some political experts see the endorsements as a quid pro quo among officials and party colleagues, and say they simply mirror Jackson’s standing among voters in his key district despite his troubles. He has won every previous elections easily.

“He has enormous influence over votes on the South Side of Chicago and south suburbs,” said Dick Simpson, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former city alderman. “He has supported most of the people who have endorsed him.”

For instance, Jackson was national co-chair of Obama’s 2008 election campaign.

Robert Starks, a professor at Northeastern Illinois University who studies politics and race, said the Jackson family name is powerful, particularly in the 2nd Congressional District Jackson represents.

Paul Green, a political scientist at Roosevelt University in Chicago, said the high-level endorsements are low risk.

“The bottom line is, it’s a help, not a hindrance. He looks like a sure winner,” Green said “The story about him and his ... big problems have gone bye-bye.”

Green points to similar endorsements during the re-election bids of the late U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, an 18-term Chicago Democrat who was once chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee even as he pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Rostenkowski, who died in 2010, left office in 1995 and served 17 months in prison.

Starks said the endorsements are just about tradition.

“Most of the people who serve with other people in Congress are a little reluctant to not support that Congress member, unless or until that member gets put out,” he said. “At this point it’s just allegations that have not been proven.”