ALBANY, N.Y. – With rival John Edwards (search) concentrating on upstate New York, Sen. John Kerry (search) is sending his fellow Massachusetts Democrat, Sen. Edward Kennedy (search), into the region for a two-day campaign swing.
Kerry said Tuesday that Kennedy would star at rallies for the Kerry campaign in Albany and Syracuse on Friday and in Rochester on Saturday that focus on the loss of jobs during President Bush's tenure.
"My friend Ted Kennedy has been a champion for working families for 35 years," Kerry said.
Kennedy, whose brother, the late Robert F. Kennedy (search), once represented New York in the Senate, is popular among New York Democrats. Kennedy took to the campaign trail in New York for Hillary Rodham Clinton when she successfully ran for the Senate in 2000.
Edwards has been focusing much of his campaign effort in New York on the upstate region where manufacturing job losses have been heavy and where the North American Free Trade Agreement (search) that Kerry voted for is unpopular. Edwards has said he would have voted against NAFTA had he been in the Senate when it was approved in 1993.
On Tuesday, both the Kerry and Edwards campaigns began running television ads across upstate New York.
Also Tuesday, Kerry picked up the endorsement of Rep. Maurice Hinchey whose congressional district stretches from the Hudson River out to Binghamton in the Southern Tier. Hinchey had been supporting the candidacy of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who quit the race last week.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox