The American Spectator

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Jackson had challenged McAuliffe a year ago on the grounds that the Clinton money man was too focused on money, not on building up a grassroots party and paying attention to the Democratic base. As it turns out, Jackson was probably right. In this election cycle, McAuliffe raised lots of dough and spent lots of dough. But not much was spent on the party’s high profile black candidates, such as New York gubernatorial challenger Carl McCall. Now Jackson has reached out to some politicos who might hold a grudge against McAuliffe, like, say, Al Gore and John Kerry, both of whom stand to lose out in DNC support with McAuliffe controlling many of the party’s national operations. At least that is what some DNC insiders think.

“People like Gore and Kerry see McAuliffe as a Clinton guy, a Gephardt guy, and this concerns them going into the 2004 election cycle,” says a DNC staffer. “I don’t think Terry cares who the presidential candidate is as long as that person is the strongest candidate.”

Jackson, however, doesn’t care about 2004. He cares about beating McAuliffe now. So any support he can muster from the perceived party elites would help him in that regard. If Jackson were to mount a challenge to McAuliffe, insiders say the only way he could win is if McAuliffe lets him.

p>”If he sees the DNC chairmanship as a no-win situation, and that he can do more good and have more fun working for one candidate in 2004, then McAuliffe could just let Jackson win,” says the DNC source. “But I don’t see that happening. If Terry has been sincere in what he’s been saying the past couple of weeks, he stays and Jackson goes home. ” br> /p>