By DAVID SKOLNICK

By DAVID SKOLNICK
and PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
AUSTINTOWN -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, rolled into the Mahoning Valley, greeting a small but enthusiastic crowd outside his Austintown hotel.
Kerry was to deliver a speech today in downtown Youngstown about jobs and the economy as part of his three-day "Jobs First Express," that began Monday and will bring him through four states -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan -- that have lost about 470,000 manufacturing jobs during the President Bush administration.
"We're going to build a stronger Ohio, and we're going to do it by putting jobs first," Kerry said.
Jobs and outsourcing
Kerry said his plan will create 10 million jobs and stop outsourcing to other countries.
"I'm going to build on that plan and talk with voters in Ohio about how we are going to rebuild America by strengthening the economy and putting Americans across this country back to work," he said.
In a speech given Monday in Wheeling, W.Va., Kerry accused President Bush of failing to enforce trade agreements that protect U.S. workers, according to the Associated Press.
Kerry told The Vindicator last week that he would bring 417,000 new jobs to Ohio, most in the manufacturing sector. The state has lost about 230,000 jobs since Bush took office in 2001, most of them in manufacturing, Kerry said.
In response, Kevin Madden, a Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman, said Monday: "John Kerry continues to trot out the same old, tired proposals from his 19-year Senate career that earned him a reputation as someone who thinks every issue is solved with a higher tax or a new regulation. John Kerry doesn't understand that economic policies rooted in bigger government and isolation from global markets would kill jobs in the [Mahoning] Valley."
Supporters
Kerry spent 15 minutes Monday talking with about 50 to 60 supporters who were roped off outside the Hampton Inn in Austintown, off state Route 46.
Those invited to greet Kerry were primarily a mixture of local labor leaders and college students.
"We have to get Kerry elected to bring back jobs to America," said JoAnn Johntony of Girard, a local Ohio Association of Public School Employees labor leader.
"It's time for a change," added Cindy Michael, a member of the Trumbull County Federation of Labor executive board. "The time has come to elect new leadership."
Yolanda Velazquez, a Youngstown State University freshman from Boardman, supports Kerry because he isn't Bush.
Her cousin, Jeremy Cuevas of Youngstown, a YSU graduate, said he is supporting Kerry because he believes the Democrat is sincere in his plan to create jobs.
"He knows we don't have jobs in this area, and he's paying attention to that," Cuevas said.
This is Kerry's second visit to the Valley. He visited the Valley on Feb. 24, making stops in Struthers.
State Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-33rd, also greeted Kerry at the hotel. Although he will share the stage today with Kerry, it was a cousin of the state senator who is helping the Kerry campaign as a volunteer security guard who got Hagan invited to the small gathering of supporters.
"I talked to him about the war and that we are spending $200 billion on a war when we could use that money to take care of our cities," Hagan said. "He said, 'My plan is to get everyone involved -- to get the United Nations involved. [Bush's] plan is to go it alone.' I felt compelled to tell him that he needs to make the distinction between his position and Bush's, and I believe he's going to make that distinction."
Kerry was supposed to make an "unannounced" stop at the Iron Skillet on Salt Springs Road before going to the hotel but was running behind schedule because of four other "unannounced" stops, so the Valley stop was canceled, a Kerry campaign worker said.
Preparing for rally
Workers were busy late Monday afternoon setting up crowd control stanchions and other equipment for Kerry's rally in downtown Youngstown. If the weather was nice -- and it wasn't supposed to be -- today, Kerry officials expected about 1,000 people at the rally.
As preparations were being made on Federal Plaza West, which was closed to motor vehicle traffic, campaign advance team members were briefing local volunteers on rally details in front of the speakers' platform.
During his speech, Kerry was to be positioned with the platform at an angle that reflected the contrast between the blight of the past and the promise for the future. With the media on a separate camera platform across the street, Kerry was to face northwest, with boarded up storefronts on either side of him and the boarded up former Paramount Theatre in front of him.
But, symbolically, his platform was positioned on the eastbound side of Federal Plaza at Hazel Street to look over the excavation for the new Mahoning County Children Services Building, which planners hope will be a part of a downtown revitalization.
Beyond that excavation site, Kerry was to face the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (steel museum), which represents the history of the steel industry, and St. Columba Cathedral and Youngstown State University, whose campus planners would like to link to downtown.
Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey, who will join Kerry on the platform, said he will do what he can to lobby the presidential candidate to not forget the needs of the city were he to be elected president.
"This event gives us an opportunity to showcase our needs," McKelvey said. "The senator will get a first-hand look at the challenges we face and some of the successes we've had in meeting those challenges. It's very positive for the Mahoning Valley to have him here. This gives a loud statement that the needs of this community are being taken seriously."
skolnick@vindy.commilliken@vindy.com