MASSILLON, Ohio - Residents of this northeast Ohio town have some advice for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry when he visits Friday: don't use their hard luck for political gain. Local governments are struggling with budget deficits and, in the past month alone, two major area employers have announced plans to cut thousands of manufacturing jobs in a state already reeling from such losses.
"The job losses could hurt Bush, but Kerry's got to be careful not to be too political. That could rub people the wrong way," said Robert Chaney, who is retired from his job at Timken Co., a bearings maker.
One of Kerry's central campaign issues remains the economy and job losses under President Bush, despite signs of an economic rebound and the creation of nearly 1 million new jobs this year. On the stump, Kerry often derides an administration that he says has the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression. Bush says the economy is "strong and getting stronger," partly because of his tax cuts. Kerry is scheduled to hold a town hall-style meeting in Massillon with workers affected by job losses, and promote his plan to revitalize the manufacturing sector. A blue-collar town about 50 miles south of Cleveland, Massillon's once-booming manufacturing plants are now hidden by new strip malls and overgrown weeds.
"Jobs is our main issue here. What are kids out of high school going to do?" said Larry Rashid, a bartender who worked at the nearby Newell Rubbermaid factory before he was laid off a decade ago.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20040625/ap_on_el_pr/kerry
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