Jesse Jackson Jr. Easy Winner Of Special Election

Jesse Jackson Jr. overwhelmingly defeated his Republican opponent in Tuesday’s special congressional election in Chicago, while Willie Brown trailed incumbent Frank Jordan in very early returns in San Francisco’s mayoral runoff.

In San Jose, Calif., Republican Tom Campbell took an early lead over Democrat Jerry Estruth in a special election to succeed Democrat Norm Mineta that Estruth had tried to turn into a referendum on House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

In Illinois, the 30-year-old son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson had been heavily favored to beat Republican lawyer Thomas Somer in the predominantly Democratic district on Chicago’s South Side.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Jackson had 47,610, or 76 percent, and Somer had 15,169, or 24 percent.

Somer, 42, a white former policeman, had courted blue-collar voters but acknowledged he faced long odds in a district where black residents outnumber whites by more than 2-1.

Jackson planned to fly to Washington to take his oath of office Thursday morning. He succeeds Democrat Mel Reynolds, who resigned Oct. 1 after being convicted of having sex with an underage campaign volunteer.

In his victory speech, Jackson thanked his parents, “who were kind enough to give me a good name - intact” and, in cadences reminiscent of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke of his dream of making his impoverished district equal to the affluent North Side.