Gang Members Join Brown on White-Water Raft Trip : Democrats: He invites unlikely pair along on his West Virginia campaign. They offer him insight into Los Angeles street scene.

With two stunned and somewhat perplexed gang members in tow, Democratic candidate Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. went white-water rafting here Monday as he campaigned in advance of this state’s presidential primary today.

Brown later flew to Nebraska, the other state with a primary today, where his campaign hopes to capitalize on the state’s tradition of voting for underdogs in its Democratic primaries.

Nebraska may represent the best hope the former California governor has of revitalizing his flagging campaign before the June 2 primary in his home state.

While the campaign may not be going well for Brown, the two newest members of his small entourage found it a thrilling, albeit sometimes terrifying, experience.

Besides his press secretary and two reporters, Brown stumped West Virginia and Nebraska with Anthony (Titi) Gomez and Robert (Accem) Garcia, two Los Angeles street gang members.

Brown met the youths at a gathering in Boyle Heights on Sunday and invited them to spend a couple of days with his campaign.

The first day was a mutual learning experience that clearly made singular impressions on both sides.

“It was great, man,” said Gomez, a member of the Quatro Flags. “It’s nice to relax and not have to worry about someone shooting you in the back.”

“It’s crazy, man. Real crazy,” added Garcia, making it clear his usage of the word was complimentary.

Apart from time Gomez did in Soledad State Prison, it was the first trip out of Los Angeles for either youth.

The commercial flight the campaign took to Cincinnati late Sunday night en route to West Virginia was also the first time either of the gang members had flown on an airplane.

Gomez fixed his eyes on the seat in front of him, clutching a pillow from the overhead compartment to his stomach as the airliner taxied down the runway and lifted off the ground.

Garcia, a member of the Mob Crew, pressed his face to the window and shook his head from side to side, murmuring “crazy, crazy, man” as he caught his first sight from the air of the city where he was born 20 years ago.

“If I wasn’t here, I’d be out on the streets tonight,” said Gomez, gradually overcoming his fright.

“Doing what?” Brown asked.

“Same thing we do every night, running from the cops,” Gomez replied.

“Yeah, selling drugs and running from the cops . . . and maybe getting into fights,” added Garcia.

“It’s scary, the first time you get into a fight,” he continued. “Everybody shooting at you and you’re shooting at them and it’s real scary. But afterward, when it’s all over and you’re safe, you feel real good.”

“You do what you have to do. You do what you have to do,” Gomez said.

“If you lived in the projects for a year,” he told Brown, “you’d be doing it, too. You’d be selling drugs and doing what you had to do to protect yourself.”

Where did the drugs come from? “Seven digits, seven digits,” said Gomez.

“You call a phone number and you get whatever you want, special delivery.”

And the guns?

“Seven digits. Like I said, you call a number and you get whatever you want . . . AK-47s, M-16s . . . even grenades,” he said.

Brown seemed impressed. “This is the real thing, isn’t it,” he whispered to a reporter. “Guns and dope. The real thing.”

Monday morning, after a night without sleep, it was Gomez and Garcia’s turn to be impressed. The Brown campaign went rafting down West Virginia’s New River, which contains some of the best and roughest white-water rapids in the country.

Gomez, who does not know how to swim, listened with growing concern as a river guide recounted the risks that running the rapids would entail.

“These are class 5 rapids,” the guide said. “Ten-foot waves can pitch the raft up vertically and turn it right over. If that happens, get clear and try not to panic.”

In one such incident last Saturday, a 32-year-old mother of two fell off a raft on the first of the 17 rapids that Brown and his party were about to run.

Gomez’s concerned look turned to one of outright alarm when the guide was asked if the woman who fell off his boat had been badly hurt.

“She drowned,” the guide said.

Gomez obviously would have preferred to sit out this leg of the campaign on dry land. But Garcia was eager to go and so participation became a matter of honor.

After it was over both youths looked ecstatic.

“It was the craziest,” said Garcia.

Gomez agreed that it was “great. I wasn’t going to go but I’m glad I did. I’m having more fun than I’ve had in a long, long time,” he said.

Then, remembering that he and Garcia are being sent home to Los Angeles today while the campaign moves on to Ohio, he added in a strained voice: “I’m seeing things I know I won’t see no more.”