POLITICS 88 : Democratic Panel Adds Jackson Backers

ATLANTA —  In a meeting punctuated by effusive courtesy and expressions of unity, the Democratic National Committee agreed on Friday to expand its membership to bring in supporters of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, including his son, Jesse Jackson Jr.

Expansion of the DNC is an important symbolic victory for Jackson, who has long said his supporters have been excluded unfairly from the party’s hierarchy. The committee, however, has little real power.

Although the decision merely ratified an agreement that had already been negotiated between Jackson’s aides and representatives of presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis, the final resolution came only after some hurried additional back-room discussions. After those negotiations, the Jackson and Dukakis camps agreed that Democratic state parties, elected officials and labor unions also would receive additional representation on the 389-member DNC.

22 New Members

In all, Friday’s new agreement called for adding 22 new at-large members of the DNC, 10 to be named by Jackson, eight by Dukakis and four by party Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr.

Kirk, who earlier had been under fire from Jackson supporters, used all four of his appointments to give positions to Jackson backers, including Ron Brown, Jackson’s chief aide during this past week’s Democratic convention. Brown also will be one of two Jackson supporters placed on the party’s 49-member executive committee. Kirk also named Jesse Jackson Jr. to the DNC, filling an existing vacancy.

Later, the DNC reelected Kirk as chairman, a post he says he will give up after the election. California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Jackson’s national campaign chairman who earlier in the week said “Kirk is a jerk,” Friday made the motion to reelect the party chief unanimously.

The agreement between the two camps also called for creating two new DNC vice chairmen. One, Jackson supporter Sidney J. Barthelemy, the mayor of New Orleans, will be in charge of DNC voter registration efforts. The second new post will be filled by the president of the Assn. of State Democratic Chairs, currently Richard Weiner of Michigan.

Two L.A. Councilmen

Among the newly added DNC members are two Los Angeles City Council members, Richard Alatorre, who was selected by Dukakis, and Robert Farrell, a Jackson supporter who is also the head of the Democratic municipal officials organization.

Dukakis also chose two other Californians for the DNC, Verne Watkins, a union official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and Jean O’Leary of Los Angeles, one of his few prominent supporters in the state’s gay community.

Jackson’s nominees to the DNC include the Rev. Willie Barrow, director of his Chicago-based Operation Push, and New York attorney Harold Ickes, who has been advising Jackson during the campaign on party rules and other issues.