Heinz Kerry helps rally local Dems
?I know where to go when I need to rest?
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Teresa Heinz Kerry told a crowd of 500 at the Warm Springs Lodge in Ketchum on Tuesday that she values the Wood River Valley as a community of genuine people and a place where it is easy to recharge one?s batteries. Photo by Willy Cook
|
|
To cheers from some 500 local residents Tuesday night, Teresa Heinz Kerry marched onto a stage at Warm Springs Lodge and stood hand-in-hand with her friend, singer and Custer County resident Carole King.
Heinz Kerry?s public appearance was a surprise for most who attended King?s Idaho Democratic Party fundraiser, which raised almost $34,000. Heinz Kerry?s husband, the Democratic Party?s presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, boarded a plane in Twin Falls earlier that afternoon en route to a campaign stop in Ohio.
?I know where to go when I need to rest,? Heinz Kerry explained to the audience about the couple?s weekend visit.
The Wood River Valley has ?real people, folk?not pretentious, not snobbish,? she said. ?It?s just so good to come back and always know it?s there.?
The couple spent the weekend at their home north of Ketchum after traveling across the country trying to win votes for the November presidential elec-tion. The visit was a needed break for both her and her husband, she said.
?This campaign is getting rough. It?s even rougher than you know,? she said. ?I guess this isn?t made for sissies, you know that.?
Heinz Kerry spoke for roughly 15 minutes and covered a lot of ground. She told stories from the campaign trail. She talked about how lucky her husband is to have Sen. John Edwards as a running mate. She talked about the successes the campaign is experiencing on the road.
She said the ?knockout? from a recent two-week cross-country tour was last week in Portland, Ore., where between 50,000 and 75,000 people gathered for a speech.
?There was a sea of human beings. I have to add that the president was there?because he?s been following us around. He had 2,300 people,? she said. ?I keep saying, and John Kerry does, too: We have a lot of work between now and Nov. 2, but the real hard work begins in January.?
Heinz Kerry?s relatively informal speech was threaded with references to Idaho and the Sun Valley area. She ticked off the names of several local resi-dents she knows and stressed that the Wood River Valley is a place of healing and relaxation for her husband as well.
?There are so many people here who matter a lot,? she said.
She has spent leisure time here since 1966, the year she married the late John Heinz III, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania. In 1987, the couple built a home near the Big Wood River about two miles north of Ketchum.
They bought a 15th-century barn in England, disassembled it and paid an English carpenter to piece it back together in Idaho.
Heinz died in a plane crash in 1991. His widow married Kerry eight years ago.
The heiress to a fortune estimated at $550 million, Heinz Kerry has won respect for her environmental activism and philanthropy.
Locally, she gave a $750,000 gift to help save Galena Lodge and another $750,000 to help upgrade local emergency services. She has given to the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and to a fundraising drive to build the new St. Luke?s Wood River Medical Center south of Ketchum.
On Tuesday evening, she recounted her involvement with the Galena Lodge fundraising drive. If it hadn?t been for her son, the need to save the ?wonder-ful lodge? might not have come to her attention.
Perhaps more exciting than the words Heinz Kerry spoke was the entrance she made, particularly because most of the audience did not know she would attend.
King finished a set of music by singing her song, ?You?ve Got a Friend.? The crowd held hands and sang along as they swayed back and forth, and the familiar melody wound down.
?You?ve got a friend, in John Kerry,? she sang. ?You?ve got a friend, in Teresa Heinz Kerry.?
And in walked Heinz Kerry, taking the stage and calling King ?an amazing gift to this campaign.?
?It was thrilling,? said Idaho Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum. ?It almost gave you goose-bumps to feel the welcome. When everybody was singing along with Carole and holding hands, and Teresa came in, it was just a magical moment. It was something I sure would not have wanted to miss.?
Stennett said he believes Heinz Kerry spoke from her heart about the close kinship she feels with this community.
?And I think the community loves her,? Stennett said. ?To stand there and feel the adoration and, just, the energy that the crowd was putting out to Teresa and Carole was pretty cool.?
House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, called the event ?wonderful.?
?Teresa Heinz Kerry was like the frosting on the cake,? she said.
