Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Faces Namesake

C H I C A G O, Jan. 20 -- Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, is running against a surprisingly troublesome opponent — Jesse L. Jackson.

"I'm running for Congress and I expect to win," the challenger said.

Jesse L. Jackson, the challenger, is a 68-year-old political novice who lives in a Chicago suburb.

Effort to Confuse Voters?

Supporters of Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, D-Ill., say his political enemies are behind a move to confuse voters in the March primary.

"I'm not against opponents, but we have to have a level playing field, and it has to be a fair process," Rep. Jackson said.

So the congressman wants his challenger off the ballot, arguing that, among other things, the man's name is just plain Jesse Jackson — not Jesse L. Jackson, like his own.

"You don't normally use 'L' or Lee as your middle name or initial, do you?" the congressman's attorney, Burton Odelson, asked the challenger.

The new candidate's birth certificate does not include the initial. But he insists that when he was 5 his uncle Freddie gave him the middle name Lee to set him apart from five or six other relatives named Jesse Jackson.

"My grandfather, my mother, myself, my son and my grandson," he said, listing some relatives with the name.

Even a daughter-in-law is named Jessie Lee Jackson, though she's now changed her middle name to Ruth to avoid confusion.

The Name Game

In this city, where the old joke is that people vote early and often on Election Day, the name game is just one more time-honored political trick.

"The folks behind this particular Jesse Jackson, I think, are working off a well-worn playbook," said David Axelrod, a political consultant and veteran of Chicago politics.

Axelrod said this type of chicanery is almost a sport here.

"You know, we have a flair for these things in Chicago, no question about it," Axelrod said.

Nevertheless, it is confusing to some in the challenger's neighborhood.

"With all these Jacksons, you don't know who, which one you're talking about," one woman said.