Letter from Washington: Enter Jackson

Democratic Party leaders are beginning to take the Presidential campaign of Senator Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson of Washington seriously. Precisely because the relatively moderate and defense-minded Jackson seemed so unlikely a candidate for a party that seemed to be moving to the left, the former journalist has seen his stock as a dark horse rise sharply. Jackson has his Senate rivals worried.

Jackson’s new credibility as a candidate stems from three factors. First, the hierarchy of the Democratic National Committee is gravely alarmed by the headlong rush to the left by all the other leading Democratic Presidential contenders. Second, Jackson’s steady cultivation of union members and Jewish voters has been more effective than similar efforts by his necessarily circumspect Democratic rivals. Third, numerous left-leaning Democratic officeholders on the state and local level are facing powerful challenges from the center in 1972; Jackson backers are not reluctant to point to the moral.

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Democratic Party leaders are beginning to take the Presidential campaign of Senator Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson of Washington seriously. Precisely because the relatively moderate and defense-minded Jackson seemed so unlikely a candidate for a party that seemed to be moving to the left, the former journalist has seen his stock as a dark horse rise sharply. Jackson has his Senate rivals worried.

Jackson’s new credibility as a candidate stems from three factors. First, the hierarchy of the Democratic National Committee is gravely alarmed by the headlong rush to the left by all the other leading Democratic Presidential contenders. Second, Jackson’s steady cultivation of union members and Jewish voters has been more effective than similar efforts by his necessarily circumspect Democratic rivals. Third, numerous left-leaning Democratic officeholders on the state and local level are facing powerful challenges from the center in 1972; Jackson backers are not reluctant to point to the moral.