WASHINGTON — His constituents haven’t seen him in four months. His staff insists he is too depressed for public appearances. But The Daily found Jesse Jackson Jr. smoking a cigar on the stoop of his $1.3 million home yesterday, the same day he was accused of bilking his campaign funds and drinking away his nights with women who aren’t his wife.
In his first interview since taking a leave of absence in early June, the Illinois congressman — sitting with his father, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson Sr. — talked about his health and how he is spending his time with Election Day less than a month away and his job on the line. In late summer, Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson announced that her husband had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was being treated at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Jackson told The Daily that he is “not well” and has doctor’s appointments twice a day at George Washington University Hospital, not far from his home in the trendy DuPont Circle neighborhood: “I go over there … at 10 [a.m.] and 1 p.m.”
When The Daily’s photographer took his picture earlier in the day, Jackson explained he had been “picking up my kids.” He didn’t elaborate on whether he was headed to the school or had just returned when he decided to take a cigar break on the steps, resting his lit Monte Cristo on a wall leading up to the front entrance of his red-brick Victorian. On the driveway were a cigar butt, a cigar band, a half-foot pile of ashes and a nearly full box of matches.
Jackson didn’t address the allegation that he misused money from his supporters — to decorate his home. One of his hometown newspapers, the Chicago Sun-Times, reported that Jackson is being investigated by the FBI and could be indicted before Nov. 6, when voters in the 2nd District will cast their ballots. The Justice Department is also looking into whether Jackson tried to buy the Senate seat left open when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008.
In a brief interview alone before going into his son’s house, Jesse Jackson Sr. told The Daily that his son is “just trying to clear his head. He’s been under medical supervision.”
Jesse Jackson Sr. told The Daily that he had not spoken with his son in two or three days.
“I don’t know his routine,” the father said.
Jesse Jackson Jr. showed up at the Bier Baron Tavern last Tuesday and Wednesday, the first time he had been seen in a public place since going on leave.
Jackson caught the attention of both patrons and the staff. A server who would identify himself only as “Frank” told The Daily that Jackson was with a group that included both men and women.
“He was here. He was drinking. He was with other people,” Frank said. “I personally didn’t serve his table.”
Jackson’s home is on the delivery route that Anthony Short drives for UPS. He often sees the congressman outside.
“Most of the time he’s talking on his damn phone,” Short told The Daily. “He has a cigar and is puffing away.”
Jackson spokesman Frank Watkins told Gawker he did not know anything about the outings but confirmed Jackson is still seeing a doctor for bipolar disorder.
With his emotional problems and now two federal probes, political observers — and more than a few constituents — are wondering whether Jackson can win re-election, even though his district covers Chicago’s South Side and its southern suburbs.
A staff member on Jackson’s first House campaign in 1995 told The Daily that she thinks her old boss is all but assured victory against his two challengers — Brian Woodworth, a Republican, and independent Marcus Lewis.
“I think the numbers are in his favor because the people running against him are unknowns who don’t have any money,” said Delmarie Cobb, who now has a public relations firm in Chicago called The Publicity Works. “Jackson has around $250,000 in his campaign coffers, I read recently, enough for direct mailings.”
Cobb has known Jackson even before she worked for him — she served as chief of staff for the elder Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign — and believes he would consider resigning if either his condition or the investigations interfered with his ability to be effective on Capitol Hill.
“I can’t guess what would go on in his head, but I do believe he takes being a congressman very seriously, and if he thought he couldn’t effectively do his job anymore, that might happen,” she said.
Regardless of the outcome of the election, Cobb believes that Jackson needs to talk at length about the last four months.
“If I was advising him, I’d tell him he needs to hold a news conference to get his side of the story out there,” Cobb said. “If he’s going to have control of his message he has to orchestrate it, and sit down and prepare for it.”