Recall Bid Likened to a Diagnosis of Cancer

California First Lady Sharon Davis offered a glimpse Wednesday into how she and her husband, Gov. Gray Davis, have reacted to the recall campaign against him, equating it to “finding out you have cancer.”

“It’s terrible news, and you think, ‘My gosh, what am I going to do?’ ” she said. “Very few people say, ‘I’m going to go home and die. What I’m going to do is fight it.’ ”

The governor’s wife was in Washington to promote a foster care program she has championed. But her appearance signaled her expected role as a strong defender of her husband should the recall drive qualify for the ballot.

“Sharon is, in many ways, the better half” of the couple, said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A. “She’s many things he is not -- charming, outgoing.... She’s definitely an asset.”

Meeting with reporters during her stop in Washington, Davis said her husband had no intention of resigning. And she expressed confidence that he would beat a recall vote and remain in office.

“We don’t feel that we’re going to lose this election,” she said.

The first lady acknowledged that the campaign against her husband has been stressful. He is coping, she said, in part by watching sports on TV. “ESPN has been a great distraction,” she said.

She said it has been hard not to think constantly about the recall campaign.

“It’s always there in the back of your mind,” she said. “But it doesn’t dominate your life. We go about our life pretty normally. We see friends. We watch films.”

Of herself, she said, “I try to just be there and support him in what he’s trying to do ... to tell him to just relax a little bit, and we’ll get through this.”

Asked to explain her husband’s unpopularity, Davis said, “You’re asking me ... why the person I’ve been married to for 20 years is not a popular guy.... You’re putting the first lady in a very tough spot.”

She then said her husband’s political standing has been hurt by the sour national economy and a state budget crisis that has forced his administration to consider the unpopular choices of cutting programs and raising taxes.

She took aim at Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), the recall campaign’s chief financial backer, complaining about the “multimillionaire Republican running around telling people how bad the governor is.”

She also said she does not view the more than 1 million signatures that recall organizers have submitted as a measure of her husband’s popularity in a state of about 35 million people.

“We don’t think that necessarily reflects how people feel,” she said.

She added that when she and her husband boarded a Los Angeles-to-Sacramento flight earlier this week, the governor was greeted with applause and thumbs-up from passengers.

Such demonstrations of support bolster his spirits, she said.

And she drew on her husband’s past political experience to express optimism about his future. “He’s been behind in the polls before and always been able to win,” she said.