Candidate pays a visit to the Valley

An 'unannounced' stop by the candidate at a Valley restaurant was canceled.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
and PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
AUSTINTOWN -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, rolled into the Mahoning Valley on Monday night, greeting a small but enthusiastic crowd outside his Austintown hotel.
"We're going to build a stronger Ohio, and we're going to do it by putting jobs first," Kerry said, adding that his plan will 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 said Ohio has lost about 230,000 jobs since Bush took office in 2001, most of them in manufacturing.
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.
Second visit
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.
"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 Monday but was running behind schedule because of four other "unannounced" stops, so the Valley stop was canceled, a Kerry campaign worker said.
skolnick@vindy.commilliken@vindy.com