RALEIGH, N.C. – Former vice presidential nominee John Edwards has agreed to help strengthen the Democratic presence in state legislatures, including Maine’s, by recruiting candidates and raising money.

“Far too often, people think that the solutions to the problems we face as a country must come from Washington, but much of the important work on the issues Americans face every day is done in the states,” Edwards said in a prepared release last week. “State legislators can do a great deal to fight poverty, expand educational opportunities, and make health care more affordable.”

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who joined the ticket of Sen. John Kerry last year, has agreed to help raise money for Democratic legislative caucuses in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Maine, Wisconsin, Missouri, South Carolina and Michigan during the next few months. He also plans to work in other states later in the year.

Edwards recently founded the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The center draws together university faculty and public policy experts to study how to move people out of poverty.