“Jr.” to take on Isaac Hayes and Rev.

It must be nice to have a name so prominent that one doesn’t even have to use it in order to campaign.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Or perhaps this is the way for Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., to remind people how prominent his name is, considering that he’s running against a candidate whose name is going to draw attention regardless of what he says or what he thinks.

JACKSON, THE SON of the internationally renowned civil rights leader, has as one of his opponents an independent candidacy by a man named Isaac Hayes. Not the singer who gave us the theme from “Shaft” and “Chocolate Salty Balls” from “South Park.”

Could enough people actually vote for Hayes because they think it’s cute he has the same name as the renowned musician? Does Jackson need to go out of his way to remind people of who his father is to draw attention away?

I couldn’t help but think that as I spent time Sunday in the Hegewisch neighborhood and in the adjacent suburb of Calumet City. For while driving along Sibley Boulevard (that’s 147^th Street, for you people who think solely in terms of the Chicago street grid system), I encountered a two-mile stretch of street where – everywhere I turned – there were signs that read “Faithful for Jr.”

At first, I thought they were litter. Then I realized how thoroughly someone had carpeted the street. “Jr.” was everywhere in huge letters that couldn’t be missed – although one literally had to walk right up to one of these campaign signs to see the tiny typeface that read, “Paid for by Jackson for Congress.”

NOW I REALIZE this tactic is not unusual. All of us no matter where we live or work are going to be burdened with campaign signs all over buildings and front lawns. Those of us looking to get away from the campaigning had better be prepared to lock themselves inside their homes, then turn off the televisions and their Internet connections.

Isaac Hayes



Because the campaign season that has 30 more days to go is upon us.

“Jr.” is far from the only candidate who is going t do whatever he can to ensure that his name gets burned in our brain, in hopes that we will cast a ballot accordingly when we go to an early voting center in coming weeks, or to a polling place on Nov. 2 proper.

Yet I have to admit I was surprised to see so much of “Jr.” Because I haven’t been picking up any sense that Jackson is in trouble in terms of getting re-elected to Congress. The salacious and scandalous details about his life may be what prevents him from making a serious campaign for Chicago mayor in next year’s municipal election.

BUT FOR CONGRESS, he is safe. The district is solid Democrat – largely because it is consists of the kinds of communities that many of these Tea Party people fled so many years ago.



Rev. Anthony Williams

I can’t envision the people of Jackson’s far South Side and surrounding suburbs congressional district getting excited about a candidate such as Hayes, who uses his campaign website to advertise the fact that the Republican Party’s “Fire Pelosi” (as in House Speaker Nancy) will be in suburban Matteson on Oct. 15.

As for Jackson’s other opponent, the Rev. Anthony Williams has become the congressman’s perennial challenger who has never been able to convince voters that Jesse Jr. doesn't do anything positive for the South Side. About the only thing that ever differs with Williams is his political party – at various times in his electoral “career,” he has run unsuccessfully for office as a Democrat, a Libertarian, an independent, a Republican, and now, a Green.

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EXTRA: Shaft/Chef beating J.J. Jr.?

It was 1973. Singer/songwriter Isaac Hayes is performing a concert, and he has civil rights activist Jesse Jackson acting as his announcer.

Moving up some 37 years to the present, we now have the sight in Illinois of Isaac Hayes challenging Jesse Jackson. As in junior, the congressman.

IT IS NOT the late singer (above) known best to one generation as the creator of the theme song from the “Shaft” movies (and to a younger generation as “Chef” from the South Park cartoons).

But it seems that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., has as his token Republican opponent in this year’s elections a mortgage industries salesman/pastor who shares the same name as the entertainer who once gave us the song, “Chocolate Salty Balls.”

It also seems that Hayes (as in the would-be politician) thinks he can be the 2010 version of Mike Flanagan, the Northwest Side Republican candidate who actually managed to beat Dan Rostenkowski for a seat in Congress.

That was the 1994 election that was supposedly a big Republican year. More importantly, Rostenkowski was under criminal indictment during the election cycle, which drove down the Democratic voter turnout sufficiently enough to let Flanagan have his one two-year term in the House of Representatives.

HAYES’ CAMPAIGN IS touting a poll claiming that the ongoing criminal trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which Jackson Jr. may wind up having to testify in, is having a similar effect.

Hayes (right) has a campaign that is claiming a poll showing him with potential for the lead over Jackson come Nov. 2.

Specifically, it says that 56 percent of those surveyed thought Jackson was not representing the Illinois Second Congressional district (Far South Side and surrounding suburbs) adequately, and that 79 percent of people do not think Jackson has been truthful in talking about his ties to Blagojevich.

Remember that for a time, Jackson Jr. was considered to be a possibility to get the U.S. Senate appointment that ultimately went to Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill.

SO DEMOCRATS WHO should be able to whomp all over their GOP opponents may have to accept the fact that they will have to work a little bit harder this year. Public Policy Polling came out with a new survey that said, among other things, that in the gubernatorial race, Gov. Pat Quinn only has 51 percent of people who say they are Democrats on his side – with another 29 percent “undecided.”

Not that I’m saying the Hayes polling is as credible as the new gubernatorial poll (which overall, shows Republican nominee William Brady leading Quinn 34 percent to 30 percent). I can’t help but punch so many holes into the theory that Jackson is lagging that far behind Hayes. This could really be a case where many people hear the name “Isaac Hayes” and think they’re getting the musician. Considering that we're the state that once nominated followers of Lyndon LaRouche for statewide offices because the names of regular Democrats "Pucinski" and "Sangmeister" sounded "too foreign," anything is possible.

Perhaps they think actor Richard Roundtree will show up to take office.

As though having a “black private dick, that’s a sex machine to all the chicks” serving in Congress would be any worse than some of the knuckleheads we have now.

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