Jackson Won’t Run in 2000, Will Fight ‘Other Battles’

CHICAGO —  The Rev. Jesse Jackson, as expected, said Wednesday that he won’t make a third run for the White House in 2000, opting instead to concentrate on his push to get corporate America to invest in minority businesses.

“The time spent running for president is time that cannot be spent doing something else,” Jackson told attendees at a luncheon for the Chicago-based LaSalle Street Project, one of several organizations his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is setting up to encourage investment in nonwhite and poor communities.

“I’ve got so many issues I want to raise. I’ve got so many battles left to fight,” the longtime civil rights activist said.

That includes building on Rainbow/PUSH’s 2-year-old Wall Street Project, which has already seen results. AT&T; Corp., for example, has committed to have $1 billion in bonds brokered through Blaylock & Partners L.P., a black-owned brokerage firm in New York.

Rainbow/PUSH also has purchased stock in 50 high-tech companies in an attempt to get them to put more nonwhites and women on their boards.

“I want the world of venture capital to be opened to women, blacks, browns, Asians and Native Americans and new immigrants--people with ideas, talent and networks that can build a stronger America,” Jackson said in his speech.

Afterward, Jackson said a presidential campaign would sap energy from those efforts.

Jackson, who met last week with President Clinton, said the president was surprised to hear he wasn’t running. “He never sought to influence my political decision,” Jackson said.

It was reported Tuesday that Jackson’s wife, Jacqueline, had told friends that her husband would not run.

With Jackson out of the race, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey remains the only declared competitor to front-running Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic nomination.

Jackson praised Gore and Bradley but declined to endorse either.

Gore praised Jackson as “a strong voice for justice and progress in America for decades.”

Jackson, 57, has never held public office but is one of the country’s best-known black political leaders.