Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is still in the hospital and his aides and father are saying his condition is more serious than originally thought, but they are declining to provide any details.
Meanwhile, Jackson’s Republican opponent in the upcoming November election is calling on Jackson’s camp to be more forthcoming with voters by telling the public what’s wrong with him.
Jackson, a nine-term Congressman in Chicago, took a medical leave on June 10 with his spokesman finally saying two weeks later that he was being treated for “exhaustion.”
But apparently there’s more going on than exhaustion.
“He’ll be in for a longer stay for more evaluations and treatment of his challenges,” said his father, Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Jackson continues to work under an ethics cloud in the House. First he was scrutinized for being embroiled in the Gov. Rod Blagojevich scandal as a possible target the governor thought might want to buy President Obama’s vacant Senate seat. Now he is the target of another investigation after his longtime friend Raghuveer Nayak was arrested on federal fraud charges involving his surgical centers.
Jackson aide Frank Watkins did not return calls. The congressman’s wife, Sandi Jackson, also did not respond to inquiries. His father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said: “He’ll be in for a longer stay for more evaluations and treatment of his challenges.”
The younger Jackson’s initial decision to go on medical leave was publicly disclosed after the window closed for independent candidates to file in the Nov. 6 general election. It also came days after a longtime Jackson friend, Raghuveer Nayak, was arrested on federal fraud charges involving surgical centers Nayak runs. The House ethics panel is investigating allegations that Nayak offered Blagojevich — before he was ousted as governor — up to $6 million in campaign cash if he appointed Jackson to Obama’s Senate seat, but the 47-year-old Jackson has denied any knowledge of the matter. And there was the matter of Nayak buying a plane ticket for a woman with whom Jackson was apparently having an affair—about which Jackson said in February it was not an ethics violation.
Despite all the controversies, Jackson still won the Democratic primary in March with more than 70 percent of the vote against a former one-term U.S. Rep, Debbie Halvorson.
Even with the controversies, Jackson showed himself to be all but politically invulnerable in a March primary against his first major opponent, former one-term U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson. He won renomination with more than 70 percent of the Democratic vote.
“I think there’s an obligation to be a little more open and forthcoming,” said his Republican challenger Brian Woodworth, an associate professor of criminal justice at Olivet Nazarene University. “I would think they would want to be more open … just to clear up rumors.”
