PITTSBURGH, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, returned to her adopted hometown of Pittsburgh Monday to offer a community hard hit by rising healthcare costs and a contracting job market a plan she said would protect them against continued economic woes.
The Heinz name looms large in Pittsburgh, as one of several key industrial families who created the city. Speaking at the Teamsters Temple 249 Local Hall, a couple of miles from Heinz Field, Heinz Kerry was well received as a scion of a family that defined many attendees' lives.
Lifelong Democrats Monday spoke glowingly of her former husband, John Heinz, who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1977 until his death in 1991. "You see, we grew up going to the Heinz youth center," attendee Robert Dunn told United Press International.
"Teresa Heinz has been a force in this community," said firefighter Ed Nemeth.
In this election, they said, they would return to their roots and vote to put Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the White House.
Pittsburgh resident Molly O'Connell said Heinz was one of the few Republicans she has voted for. Like many residents, O'Connell said she has heard Heinz Kerry speak several times but was "real curious to see what she has to say as a candidate's wife." She added she hoped Heinz Kerry would influence undecided voters, "give them something they can latch onto."
"I don't know how much longer people are going to survive" with the current healthcare crisis, she said. "The average guy is really struggling."
Once she had taken stage, Heinz Kerry spoke in her characteristic quiet voice and slow cadence. "It's good to be home," she said, before providing a detailed outline of the Democrats' healthcare plan, including its provision to provide 75 percent of coverage over $50,000 for catastrophic events and a plan to transfer all children on state Medicare to the federal system.
"We cannot be losing jobs and healthcare because of the cost of healthcare," she declared to applause. "That's ridiculous."
She received a round of applause after declaring mandatory overtime for nurses is a "no-no," telling attendees she thought nurses and teachers belong to a "sacred tribe" of those working for the common good rather than to become rich.
And perhaps the loudest cheering came when she outlined Democrats' plan to reform the corporate tax code to encourage companies not to outsource jobs.
"John will slash the tax cuts of corporations that move overseas and get a tax cut for the jobs we have lost. Instead," she said over applause, "he will use that money for companies that stay in our country and that try to deal with their problems of health and other issues."
As at many Kerry events, the audience was peppered with union signs and bright yellow shirts. Firefighters, machinists, building trades, teamsters and members of the International Union of Painters and Allied Traders were in attendance at the town hall, asking questions about how Kerry's healthcare plan would fix what they said was the decimation of their industries and commensurate health insurance.
Nemeth and Bob Kerestes, both members of the firefighters union, said they and most laborers they knew supported Kerry.
"President Bush is tearing labor down," Nemeth said.
"Jobs, healthcare, pensions, everything," Kerestes interjected.
"When he gives us a recommendation that instead of building firehouses in Iraq we should be keeping them open at home, that's our man," Nemeth later added.
"We've got to protect the homeland before we do anything else."
Dunn, a member of the building trades union, said he thought Kerry would "bring some of the jobs back to us, the people who built this country."
He added that the few undecided voters he knew "aren't any more" due to Kerry's performance in the debate and world events, including the war in Iraq.
Pittsburgh residents live in a city heavily dependent on manufacturing and other labor industries, which have been especially hard hit in the recent economic downturn. Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, have found a receptive audience to their argument that a man whose administration said job outsourcing was a healthy part of economic development in areas such as Pennsylvania and Ohio does not deserve four more years in the White House.
Despite the pull of that sell, however, both states remain up for grabs. Nationwide polling released Monday indicated Kerry and President Bush were neck-and-neck again after Kerry's performance at the first presidential debate, and polls for the states have had any leads within the margin of error.
Heinz Kerry was a good tool for the Democratic campaign; she is "for the working class," Dunn told UPI. She alternately elicited laughter and nods, the former when after running though a list of projected costs on Kerry's healthcare plan she told the audience, "I'm not an economist, I'm just saying what they tell me."
Several times during her remarks Heinz Kerry referenced reports drafted by the Heinz Endowment and Heinz Family Philanthropy, both of which she chairs, drawing attention to her longtime interest in the issue.
Healthcare is "becoming unaffordable and, for many, inaccessible," she said. The Kerry plan, as outlined by Heinz Kerry Monday, would offer Americans choices, put caps on healthcare costs and focus on preventative care.
"Solving the healthcare problems and the costs would be very, very, very helpful for job creation, to job keeping, and to stopping our hemorrhaging of jobs," she said. "It's very, very important."
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