"My constituents are people who depends on me to be there for them. And I'm going to continue to work hard on their behalf," Ald. Jackson said. "Whoever these people are who purport to speak for me should stop."
The impromptu news conference came after Jackson, who belongs to seven city council committees was a no-show at a meeting Tuesday morning. She has missed a majority of committee meetings this year, but argued that she has not neglected her duties as an alderman. Her husband, former congressman Jesse Jackson Junior, has been out of the public eye while being treated for bipolar disorder and under federal investigation. He resigned from Congress last month.
"It's been a very exhausting period for me. It's been tough on the family watching Jesse go through the transition that he's gone through," Sandi Jackson said.
Jackson said some meetings took place as she was transporting her husband from one hospital to the next. She says he is now at their home in Washington, D.C., continuing to improve every day.
While her family is a top priority, the alderman says so are her constituents.
"I don't think anyone would blame me for trying to be a good wife and trying to be by my husband's side when he was hospitalized," Jackson said.
Jackson said she has gotten support from people in her ward. That's what her sister-in-law Santita Jackson said is most important.
"I hope that people will give her the space to take care of her family. She has got two young children. She's got a husband who's ailing. She needs the space to take care of that," Santita Jackson, Jesse's sister, said.
On Monday, Jackson said she is not running to replace her husband in Congress.
