Cheryle Jackson is Running for the U.S. Senate (I Knew Her When She Was Blago's Press Flack)

Cheryle Jackson, the head of the Chicago Urban League, announced on Monday her intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat that Barack Obama gave up when he was elected President.

I met Jackson, now 44, in the spring of 2003 when I was writing a profile for Chicago magazine of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Jackson was Blagojevich's communications director at the time.

Before becoming Blago's press flack, Jackson had been Amtrak's regional vice president for communications and government affairs. David Mendell, then a Chicago Tribune reporter, wrote in December 2002 that, according to his sources, Blagojevich "specifically sought an African-American woman for the post that represents the administration to the media [because] the overwhelmingly Democratic vote totals from the black community in Chicago and the south suburbs were key to their election victory."

Jackson was impressive, strong willed and minded, and, initially, difficult.

After I called her to request face-to-face interviews with her boss, she told me, during a telephone call on May 23, 2003, that the level of access I got to Blago would depend on his getting the magazine's cover. I had also asked for an interview with the state's new First Lady, Patti Blagojevich, and Jackson reiterated that access would have to wait on an assurance that my Blago profile would run on the cover. She even had the cover shot set in her mind. She wanted her boss to pose with the cast of the soon to be released Barbershop 2: Back in Business. She explained that there would be a bill signing on the set of the movie.

A week or so later, she left a message on my voice mail accusing me of calling people close to the governor and misrepresenting myself by telling them that I was given their names and contact info by Jackson or by "the governor's office." I told her I would never do that. "I have [a long list] of names," I told her when I reached her by telephone, "and I'll call whom I want."

She backed down and we agreed "to put this behind us." She also dropped the cover boy demand. When the piece was published in the November 2003 issue of Chicago the cover was "the 2003 Dining Awards" with a line running across the top, "Governor Sunshine: the Blagojevich Story."

After that, Jackson never attempted to stymie my progress in any way. She set up face to face interviews with Blagojevich in his office in the State of Illinois Building that July and August.

She helped me arrange interviews with a few key people, including Patti, and Lon Monk, then Blago's chief of staff, who was indicted in the federal corruption case against his former boss.

She called ahead to help me land an interview with Ed Vrdolyak, for whom Blago worked early in his career. She also urged me to talk to David Wilhelm and told me that she intended to call Wilhelm, who was Blago's 2002 campaign chair, transition adviser, and member of his "kitchen cabinet," and tell him to "take my call."

When I interviewed Wilhelm that August, he told me that the three people closest to Gov. Blago were Cheryle Jackson, Lon Monk, and Bradley Tusk, then Blago's deputy governor (now running New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg's reelection campaign).

According to Crain's political columnist Greg Hinz, David Wilhelm will serve Cheryle Jackson as a "special adviser" in her 2010 run for the Senate seat. Wilhelm had also run Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. If Jackson was taken with Blago, she was not alone. When I interviewed Wilhem in 2003, he described Blago as "certainly among the most gifted natural politicians. ... Same ability to light up a crowd or a room that Bill Clinton has."

Comments

[RRonin]

A cynical person might say that Blago is trying to become Boss Blago.

[JusticeMom]

From the articles that I have read about Cheryle Jackson more recently than an account from six years ago, including the current August 2009 issue of Today's Chicago Woman, Ms. Jackson seems very impressive. It sounds like Ms. Felsenthal has a personal agenda. Besides, as a press secretary to the governor, it would make sense that she would try to get him to be on the cover of a magazine or top billing of whatever newspaper or newscast. That's why the job is called press secretary. And it seems that Ms. Jackson went with Blago for the same reasons millions of Illinoisans voted for him not once, but twice. In fact, she had more forethought than the rest of us. She left the job during his first term.

From what I've read on what she's already done for working peopIe in this state as president of the Chicago Urban League, I think Cheryle Jackson would make a great foot soldier as a Senator. People, wake up, do your own research instead of relying on one article to make an important decision.

[Carol Felsenthal - Huffpost Blogger]

No personal agenda here; i've written a lot about former Gov. Blagojevich and also about his appointee to the seat, Sen. Roland Burris.

One note, I like the people who run TODAY'S CHICAGO WOMAN, but i woudn't rely on its reporting to get a full picture of someone. It's often interesting stuff, but more a celebration of subject than hard-hitting journalism.

[RapidRay]

So, the redoubtable Miss Jackson's qualification for the most august deliberative debating body in the world is that she has never held any office? To quote my favorite Stooge Curly: "The noive of these people"
Granted Caligula ran Incitatus for the office.

[Ushasmom]

Thanks for posting this, Carol; it helps me make my decision in our upcoming primary race!

[wizened]

I'm sure Blago was a tremendous dissappointment to everyone who hitched their star to him, probably including his brother.

[timm0]

Guilt by association sometimes works the right way. Anyone running against Ms. Jackson would have an immediate advantage.