John Edwards to kickoff poverty fight in Phila.

from The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Thomas Fitzgerald

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Former Democratic Sen. John Edwards is scheduled to hit the campaign trail this morning in Philadelphia, making his debut as chairman of a new effort to cut poverty in the United States by 50 percent during the next decade.

The effort – called Half in Ten - is a partnership of the Center for American Progress Fund, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Coalition on Human Needs, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Leaders say the group's campaign will focus on building support for practical legislation to attack poverty. The group, for example, plans to lobby to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which helps low-income families; to raise both state and federal minimum wages; to increase the number of low-income families receiving child-care assistance, and to increase eligibility for unemployment insurance.

"We're going to be out there pushing legislators, pushing the Congress, pushing presidential candidates . . . and making sure that Americans, not just politicians, are responding" to the issue, Edwards said of Half in Ten last week on NBC's Today Show.

Edwards, who was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president four years ago, abandoned his 2008 presidential campaign Jan. 30 after finishing behind Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in early caucuses and primaries. He had made an attack on poverty central to his aggressive anti-corporate message.

Edwards is scheduled to speak at the Thankful Baptist Church in North Philadelphia at 9:30 a.m.