GRAY DAVIS

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Tuesday exhorted a predominantly African American audience here to reject the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, the latest appearance by a prominent national Democrat to press the campaign on the beleaguered governor’s behalf.

With Davis watching, Jackson told about 500 people packed into the Third Baptist Church gymnasium that California’s financial difficulties -- and the frustration of people affected by the hard times -- were no different from those of other states across the nation.

“California does not have a monopoly on this frustration,” said Jackson. “We all have a sense that we’re in a hole. But in a hole, you do not need a shovel ... to dig a deeper hole. You need a rope and ladder.”

Davis later crossed to the east side of San Francisco Bay to deliver an address before an enthusiastic audience of nearly 1,000 registered nurses at the centennial celebrations of the 55,000-member California Nurses Assn. in Oakland. The group is the largest registered nurses’ association in California and a staunch supporter of Davis since he signed into law the nation’s first legislation that sets ratios for the number of patients per nurse at hospitals.

“There’s no question that RNs in the state of California will vote no on the recall,” said association President Kay McVay, a registered nurse, in her introduction of Davis as the crowd erupted into chants of “No recall!”

“This is really a very important day, because this is the day we turn around this whole recall, because of all of you,” McVay said.

“I like your signs,” Davis said as he took the podium, prompting a chorus of whoops from the audience. “Let me see a couple more.”

Davis is coming off a week in which new polls showed him gaining ground in his fight against the recall. At a state party convention in Los Angeles on Saturday, Democrats expressed unity in backing Davis.

On Sunday, former President Clinton appealed to California Democrats to reject the recall and support Davis during remarks at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles.

In his remarks Tuesday, Davis continued to make the case that the recall is about far more than his political future.

He described the recall as an undemocratic exercise that threatened to subvert the will of millions of Californians who voted for him in November’s election, with a new governor possibly emerging with a fraction of the votes he received as the winner of the last election or a fraction of the votes he receives in the recall vote.

“Recall is like impeachment: There has to be some pretty terrible abuse -- criminality, incompetence -- something really terrible to warrant your removal from office after a duly constituted election,” Davis said.

“Those grounds do not exist. People may not agree with everything I’ve done. But I was elected, I should have a four-year term [and] you should be able to judge at the end of that whether on balance your life is better or not better as a result of that term.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, Davis announced the appointment of Jill Furillo, national affairs director of the nurses association, to the California Board of Registered Nursing. The appointment marks the first time that a prominent association policy official has been named to the powerful state board, said Donna Gerber, director of government relations for the association.

In San Francisco earlier in the day, Jackson and Davis were warmly received by the church audience.

Clad in a short-sleeved dark blue shirt, Jackson was received with cheers and whistles, as people stood on their chairs and snapped photos of the prominent civil rights leader.

He and other community leaders compared the recall to the 2000 presidential campaign, an election viewed by some African Americans as a disenfranchisement of Florida voters.

The recall backers are “the same forces that used the extraordinary power of the Supreme Court to intervene in a state election and stop the count and determine the outcome,” Jackson said, adding, “There is a line of disenfranchisement, a line of destabilization.”

He led the audience in a raucous chant of “No on the recall, no on 54!”

“Our good cash should not be used to put democracy in the trash in the state of California,” added the Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church, as the audience applauded.

“That conservative, right-wing, reactionary element of a certain party caught us by surprise down in Florida,” Brown said.

Davis beamed throughout the rally, hugging the union officials and religious leaders. At one point, he and Jackson raised their clasped hands in the air.

Davis wove into his usual stump speech an argument former President Clinton made during a speech Sunday -- that a recall would paralyze leaders from making unpopular calls.

“Part of being in government, particularly in tough times, is having to make hard decisions,” he said.

“You don’t just get for the salad days, when everything is great.”

“If you ever want at any time in the future to have an elected official make a difficult decision, I assure you it will not happen if this recall happens,” Davis added.