Gray Davis Savors Sweet Sunday

From a poorly attended morning religious service where California’s almost-first lady read a Biblical passage stating “the old order has passed away,” to a crowded evening gala where hip-hop and jazz shared a stage, Gov.-elect Gray Davis received advice and admiration for nearly 12 hours Sunday.

He also received criticism from anti-abortion protesters who marched outside the ecumenical service at the Sacramento Convention Center objecting to Davis’ pro-abortion rights stance.

But the day’s most joyous moments came during the afternoon event at the California Railroad Museum in Old Town Sacramento, where children were welcomed, not just tolerated, and hot dogs were as haute as the cuisine got.

Inside the museum’s roundhouse, Davis told the cheering crowd of about 2,200 invited guests that he made sure there was a children’s event in the three-day festivities to remind people of his campaign vow to “lift the promise, the possibility and the performance of every child.”

During an impromptu news conference after the party, Davis gave a sneak preview of the inaugural speech he will give this morning that will touch on themes of bipartisan accord in political circles and higher expectations for everyone.

“I really believe that all of us could ask more of ourselves and our children and we’d be a better people and a better state for it,” said an unusually jovial Davis. “I don’t want to give the whole speech now, though, or otherwise no one will come by tomorrow.”

Those who scored an invitation to the museum event were not disappointed. There were tables filled with bags of candy, cookies and nuts, manned by adults who urged children to “take one, take all, take more!”

“It exceeded our expectations; I don’t have enough pockets for all this stuff,” said Hugo Lopez, an Assembly staffer who worked on Davis’ budget transition team.

Lopez and his wife, Gloria, brought their three young children and as Lopez talked, 4-year-old Adam gobbled cotton candy from one fist while holding a red balloon sword aloft with the other.

Patriotism reigned, with cotton candy coming in bright red and ice blue, as well as the traditional pink, and choices for balloon animals included heavy doses of red, white and blue. Davis’ entrance was heralded by the Olympic theme song.

The only obvious glitch in the merriment was when a light fixture broke loose from the merry-go-round, narrowly missing a child and closing the popular ride for more than an hour.

But chances to play carnival-style games, such as the beanbag toss, were free and prizes were beyond even big children’s wildest imaginations: computer software, cameras and videos.

Casey Fenton, 17, guarded a stack of 16 software boxes while fellow Alameda high school students tried to win more. Fenton was able to get 15 friends invited, he said, because they all do volunteer work after school. And his mother is a Democratic Party organizer and heard “they were looking for youth” to invite.

Turnout for the railroad museum party also met the expectations of event organizers, especially after Sunday morning’s ecumenical service drew fewer than half the expected 600 participants. Spokespersons suggested that fog at Sacramento International Airport might have delayed out-of-town guests, but Southwest Airlines reported no significant delays of morning arrivals.

Vestments alone--from tweed suits to saffron robes--told much about the service’s diversity of religions. Yet the message delivered by 18 clergy members inside the Sacramento Convention Center was similar: End the partisan bickering that has damaged California.

“To help, not to hinder; to include, not to exclude,” said Dr. Metwalli B. Amer, executive director of the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims. “May God give our state leadership the way of love.”

The Rev. Bob Oshita of the Sacramento Buddhist Church told a story about flying on the same plane as Davis some years ago, when Davis was state controller, and being impressed that the politician did not fly in first class but rather “shoulder to shoulder with we the people.”

Rabbi Brad Bloom, who presided over the service as head of the Sacramento Interfaith Bureau, added his prayer that “you do your best to end the . . . partisanship and all that divides us in this great state.”

And, as the only layperson who spoke from the pulpit, Sharon Davis implied a dramatic change is afoot. From Revelations she read: “There will be no more tears . . . for the old order has passed away.”

The clergy were Muslim and Buddhist, Mormon and Sikh, Jewish and Christian. Although the Davises are Catholic, only one local Catholic priest attended and that was not an oversight.

Sacramento’s Msgr. Edward Kavanaugh turned down his invitation, writing in a letter to Bloom that the invitation caused him “profound distress and grave insult” because of Davis’ support for abortion. He compared the request to inviting Rabbi Bloom to an anti-Semitic event.

Initial efforts to hold the service at a nearby Catholic Church also had been foiled by parish concerns about a repeat of the hundreds of anti-abortion protesters who met Gov. Pete Wilson’s inaugural service there.

Sunday’s protest outside the convention center was comparatively low-key, with just a dozen or so people greeting guests with giant photographs of aborted fetuses and protest signs, one of which read: “Gray Davis is a Judas Catholic.”

The evening gala at Sacramento’s sports stadium, the Arco Arena, began with marching bands from across the state and continued with hip-hop artist Coolio and jazz saxophonist Kenny G.

Through it all Gray and Sharon Davis sat in a dignitaries box, usually bathed in spotlight. Both visibly blushed with the teasing of comedian Bob Saget, who insisted that the governor-to-be is “quite wacky.”

“Last Halloween he wanted to go in disguise,” Saget said. “He wore a darker blue suit. No one recognized him.”