Hallelujah! Ald. Sandi Jackson Quits Chicago City Council

They're creepy and they're kooky: The Jackson Family
Photo: Sandi Jackson for 7th Ward Alderman campaign

Jan. 11, 2013 - Sandi Jackson, wife of former Congressman Jesses Jackson, Jr. has - finally - resigned. Goodbye to bad rubbish. She will no longer be the alderman for Chicago's 7th Ward. According to the Chicago Tribune, she submitted her resignation letter "to Mayor Rahm Emanuel today. It is effective Tuesday," January 15. Jackson was first elected to the city council in 2007. In her letter to Emanuel, she cited "very painful family health matters" as a major factor in her decision to resign.

Emanuel took time to praise her in a statement he released in response to her resignation:

"As Sandi takes this time to focus on her family, we give her our deepest thanks and support for her service to our City and the residents of her ward. Her leadership has been greatly appreciated in the Chicago City Council." 

"Leadership?" What leadership, Mr. Mayor? Sandi Jackson seemed to care more about living it up in D.C. than she cared about representing her own ward. How was she leading from 700 miles away?

As noted by ABC7 Chicago on November 16, Ald. Jackson missed the very important 2013 city budget meeting. Why? Because she was in Washington, D.C. Why was she there? She didn't say.

"If somebody was grading this, they would get an F. Because everything that could have been done wrong, has been done wrong," said Delmarie Cobb, political consultant. 

Cobb, who was Congressman Jackson's media director in the 1995 special election, says the way the Jacksons have handled this family crisis with constituents and the public is mind-boggling. She says this is about the Jackson name. 

"It's the brand. If it's tarnished, they all have to...they all will pay for it," said Cobb.

Is that the kind of "leadership" that Mayor Emanuel praised her for?

The 7th Ward will not miss Sandi Jackson. She and her husband have been living in Washington, D.C. most of the time. Jackson has missed the vast majority of city council meetings over the past couple of years. Husband Jesse resigned after months of claiming to be mentally ill, thereby leaving his congressional district without representation. Sandi Jackson seemed to care even less about her own constituents, not even bothering to offer an excuse for her reign in abstentia.

Sandi Jackson and hubby Jesse together stink of aloof corruption.

"Jackson formed a political tag-team with his wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson, 7th, who over the years has received hundreds of thousands of dollars as a paid political consultant to her husband. Despite her role on the City Council, the couple maintained an upscale home in Washington and sent their children to school there. Sandi Jackson has refused to discuss her husband's political future or the investigation into his campaign spending. She could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday." ~ Chicago Tribune

That campaign spending involved hundreds of thousands of dollars that Jesse, Jr. paid to Sandi as a political consultant to his congressional campaign. The continuing and still-developing federal corruption investigation into the doings of the Jacksons is probably the real reason that Sandi Jackson finally decided to stop the charade of being a real member of the Chicago City Council. Meetings with defense attorneys, after all, can be so very time consuming.

Related:

• Sandi Jackson Resigns From City Council Chicagoist
• Ominous timing of Jackson Jr scandal outrage Examiner
• Ald. Sandi Jackson misses Chicago City Council 2013 budget meeting ABC7 Chicago
• Jesse Jackson Jr. resigns from Congress, acknowledges federal probe Chicago Tribune