Jones took Obama, the 'pushy' organizer, under his wing
Jones took Obama, the 'pushy' organizer, under his wing
What stood out about the skinny, 25-year-old community organizer the first time Emil Jones met him?
"He was a little pushy," the president of the Illinois Senate recalls of Barack Obama.
(AP file)
Jones was just a state senator back in 1985 when he noticed a handful of people gathering down the block from his South Side district office. Jones walked over to see what they were up to.
It wasn't till he read about it in Obama's book, years later, that he realized the group had been gathering to organize a protest.
"I sort of startled them by warmly greeting them," Jones said, sitting in his state office in Chicago's Thompson Center. "They were organizing to get some attention for the dropout rate at Fenger High School. I had the same concerns, so I invited them in to my office. We sat down and had a dialogue. They weren't just there to complain. They actually had solutions to the problem. "
Years later, Jones would welcome Obama into the state Senate and help shepherd him into the U.S. Senate.
But back then, Obama was just a "pushy" community organizer who Jones still found himself liking.
"I liked him from the start," Jones said. "I felt that he was genuinely sincere."
Jones got used to seeing Obama bring community residents to his district office or down to Springfield on issues from community development to education. Jones and Obama would go out to lunch or for coffee.
"I thought he was very bright and intelligent and very sincere," Jones said. "You meet people in this business that are plastic, and he was not. I thought he had a very strange name, but I never questioned him."
Some Obama critics have said that, by working closely with Jones once he got to Springfield, Obama betrayed his reformist credentials because Jones came from the "machine" wing of the Democratic party, not the liberal, independent wing Obama was supposed to represent.
"Machine," Jones spat out the word. "Now, I don't know what that means. I came up through the political organization of Wilson Frost."
Frost was an African-American alderman and Democratic committeeman who served as president pro tem of the Chicago City Council under the late Mayor Richard J. Daley.
Jones said he just remembers Obama as a hard worker who, on his first day in the state Senate, volunteered to take on any thankless projects. Jones remembers Obama's comments after the Democrats won the majority in the state Senate in 2003, making Jones president.
"He came to me and he said, 'You're the Senate president. You have a lot of power,' " Jones recalled.
"I said, 'I do? What kind of power do I have?' He said, 'You have the power to make a United States senator.' 'Oh? I didn't realize that. If I have that kind of power, do you know of anyone I could make a United States senator?' He said, 'Me.' He caught me by surprise. I said, 'Let me think about it.' And we continued to talk, and I told him, 'That sounds good. Let's go for it.' That started the campaign."
Jones announced his retirement last week, following a controversial Chicago tradition of waiting until after the primary election so that the Democratic Ward committeemen, rather than voters choose his replacement. Following another Chicago tradition, he suggested and the committeemen agreed, to nominate his son, Emil Jones III. Jones III is expected to have little trouble beating Republican Ray Wardingly in November.