LEXINGTON — The message from AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to union workers was clear: Vote as if your lives, or at least your livelihoods, depend on it.

        “It's worth taking sick leave,” Rev. Jackson exhorted a crowd of about 100 at a union hall. “Because if you lose, you're going to be sick for a long time.”

        “Everything we have is at stake this time,” Mr. Trumka added. “This is the biggest competition, the biggest election in our lives.”

        An organized labor tour in support of Democrats stopped in Lexington and Louisville on Thursday after winding through West Virginia and eastern Kentucky a day earlier. Most of the message was on behalf of presidential nominee Al Gore, but congressional candidates rode the coattails.

        Three Kentucky House candidates face Republican incumbents in hotly contested races next month.

        “I'm more enthused about this political campaign than any I've ever been in,” said Scotty Baesler, who is trying to take back the 6th District seat from Ernie Fletcher.

        Mr. Baesler, who gave up the House seat in 1998 for an unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate, and the parade of speakers ticked off Medicare, Social Security, public education, labor issues and oth ers at stake in the 2000 campaign.

        “I like this race because of who my enemies are,” Mr. Baesler said. “My enemies are the drug companies; my enemies are the HMO insurers.”

        The tour worked a predawn plant gate in Lexington with Mr. Baesler and then spent much of the day with Eleanor Jordan, a Democratic state representative who is locked in a tight battle with Rep. Anne Northup.

        State Republican Chairman Ellen Williams said Rev. Jackson was the latest liberal Democrat to campaign for Kentucky congressional candidates, following House leaders Richard Gephardt and Patrick Kennedy.

        “If I were a worker in this state and I saw those people coming in, I would grab my wallet and run,” Mr. Williams said. “These are known big government, big taxing people who believe that more of our hard-earned dollars going into federal government is better.”

        Mr. Williams said rank-and-file union workers would be attracted to Republicans' efforts to limit government's role, while supporting prescription drug coverage and protecting Social Security. She accused Democrats and their backers of using scare tactics.

        “When you don't have anything positive to say about what you are going to do, then you try to scare people,” she said.

        The tour's visit to Madisonville on Friday is in support of Brian Roy, the former Marshall County sheriff trying to unseat Rep. Ed Whitfield, the first Republican in history to carry the far western 1st District.

        Rev. Jackson, who had union members hopping to their feet and clapping their hands, poked fun at the relevance of many Republican ideas — including school vouchers — to ordinary hourly wage-earners.

        “You can't take vouchers to Mud Creek, Ky.,” Rev. Jackson shouted. “The American train is to educate all of our children.”

        Mr. Baesler reminded the audience of the tone of the Fletcher race, which many voters already say they have tuned out because of the nasty barrage of radio and television advertisements. Mr. Baesler said his race is about something bigger — control of the Congress.

        “All the nastiness we're seeing on TV to where I don't recognize myself, this is not about me,” Mr. Baesler said. “I'm one person in a cog.”

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