The DNC Race Riot

MAXINE Waters was livid. “If Maynard Jackson does not get taken care of so he can represent us inside this party,” she told delegates at the Democratic National Committee’s winter gathering in Washington, “there ain’t gonna be no meeting to elect nobody else!” Waters, the six-term congresswoman and one-time head of the Congressional Black Caucus, was trying to build support for Jackson, the former Atlanta mayor who was a late entry into the race for party chairman. But fundraiser Terry McAuliffe, with the backing of Bill and Hillary Clinton, had already locked up more than enough votes to win. With the election just hours away, Waters made a frankly racial appeal on Jackson’s behalf, taking pains to “remind” black delegates that they should vote for the former mayor. And part of her appeal was the threat to disrupt the whole winter meeting. “We had to do it that way,” Waters later explained.

Since Jackson was sure to lose, what Waters really wanted was a set of concessions from McAuliffe—a big title for Jackson, new staff, more power within the party—and, in the end, she got most of what she wanted. In return for Jackson’s promise to drop his challenge, McAuliffe awarded Jackson the newly created position of “National Development Chair,” which gives him control of a variety of equal-opportunity programs inside the DNC, as well as of the party’s new Voting Rights Institute. “We are a united party with one mission,” Jackson said in a let-bygones- be-bygones statement released after the agreement.

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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MAXINE Waters was livid. “If Maynard Jackson does not get taken care of so he can represent us inside this party,” she told delegates at the Democratic National Committee’s winter gathering in Washington, “there ain’t gonna be no meeting to elect nobody else!” Waters, the six-term congresswoman and one-time head of the Congressional Black Caucus, was trying to build support for Jackson, the former Atlanta mayor who was a late entry into the race for party chairman. But fundraiser Terry McAuliffe, with the backing of Bill and Hillary Clinton, had already locked up more than enough votes to win. With the election just hours away, Waters made a frankly racial appeal on Jackson’s behalf, taking pains to “remind” black delegates that they should vote for the former mayor. And part of her appeal was the threat to disrupt the whole winter meeting. “We had to do it that way,” Waters later explained.

Since Jackson was sure to lose, what Waters really wanted was a set of concessions from McAuliffe—a big title for Jackson, new staff, more power within the party—and, in the end, she got most of what she wanted. In return for Jackson’s promise to drop his challenge, McAuliffe awarded Jackson the newly created position of “National Development Chair,” which gives him control of a variety of equal-opportunity programs inside the DNC, as well as of the party’s new Voting Rights Institute. “We are a united party with one mission,” Jackson said in a let-bygones- be-bygones statement released after the agreement.