Campaigns turn focus to jobs, poverty

TOLEDO, Ohio - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, with a watchful eye on next week's Super Tuesday primaries and a hopeful look to the general election, said Wednesday U.S. companies should be required to give their employees a three-month warning before exporting jobs.

"We'll require full disclosure to the American public about how many jobs are being sent overseas, where they're going and why they're going," Kerry said at the University of Toledo. "Companies will no longer be able to surprise their workers with a pink slip instead of a paycheck."

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who is Kerry's remaining key rival in the race for the nomination, outlined his plan to reduce poverty as he campaigned Wednesday in California.

"People said it was too hard and too impossible to go to the moon, but we did," he said. "People said that we could never cure polio, but we did. And people say that we can never lift millions of Americans out of poverty, and I'm here to tell you today that together, we are going to do it."

When Kerry arrived in Toledo, he collected the support of former Ohio Sen. John Glenn, who said he had never endorsed a Democratic candidate in a primary.

If he wins the nomination and is elected, Kerry said he would require companies intending to outsource jobs to notify workers and state and federal labor officials. Then, he said, the Labor Department would be required to issue a report to Congress on the number of jobs sent overseas.

John Kerry easily captured victories in Utah, Idaho and Hawaii Tuesday night and has a commanding lead over John Edwards in polls in key Super Tuesday contests next week in California, New York and Ohio. Edwards is most competitive in Georgia, one of several states where he has focused his underdog campaign.

In Idaho, Kerry outpolled Edwards 54 percent to 22 percent, winning 16 delegates. Edwards won six. In Utah, Kerry beat Edwards 55 percent to 30 percent, winning seven delegates. Edwards won three. In Hawaii, Kerry got 50 percent of the vote and 16 delegates. Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich won his first six delegates with 26 percent of the vote.

WASHINGTON - Howard Dean, whose presidential campaign fund went from boom to bust, is pleading with donors to open their pocketbooks one more time and help him retire at least $400,000 in debt.

The Democrat who broke party records for a presidential candidate by raising $41-million last year abandoned his bid last week after failing to win a single state.

Dean said he wants to retire the debt quickly so he can move forward with an organization he plans to start "to affect change at all levels of our political process," in a form still be determined.

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