CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER
Aired July 25, 2004

BLITZER: Chris Heinz, thanks very much for joining us. I know you're getting ready to come here to Boston. You'll be introducing your mother Tuesday night.

Let's look at the latest Time magazine poll, the overall horse race. Likely voters' choice for president: Kerry, 46 percent; Bush, 43 percent; Ralph Nader is at 5 percent.

What kind of bounce, realistic bounce, do you anticipate that your stepfather will get coming out of this convention?

CHRIS HEINZ, JOHN KERRY'S STEPSON: Well, a lot of people have been drawing parallels to 1992 when President Clinton had this huge bounce, which was a function of him selecting a running-mate and Ross Perot getting out of the race during the convention.

I think, this year, most informed people would say we expect much less of a bounce for two main reasons. One is we've already announced our running-mate in Senator Edwards, and, you know, already had a kind of pre-convention lift from that and people are very excited.

And the other reason is, we all know that this is a really, really, really divided electorate, and that there are fewer undecideds this year than in previous cycles. And for that reason, I think that we won't get as big a bounce as, say, Clinton in '92.

But I feel confident about this convention and about us coming out with the momentum and feeling excited about our message.

BLITZER: Clinton was certainly helped in '92, and all of us remember that convention, in part because Ross Perot, who was then a presidential candidate, dropped out in the middle of the convention and endorsed Bill Clinton effectively.

What about Ralph Nader right now? He's getting 5 percent in this latest poll. How worried are you about Ralph Nader?

HEINZ: Well, I'm fundamentally an optimist vis-a-vis Ralph Nader's candidacy. At the end of the day, you know, we're not going to pick fights with Ralph Nader. I think that John and Mr. Nader have a long history together. And John has a great record on corporate responsibility and environmental issues, and I think he can speak to large groups of people who were in 2000 Nader voters.

So I believe we'll be making our own luck there. We're going to treat those supporters with respect, try to give them a place on our platform and in our party and hope for the best on November 2nd.

But I do believe you create your own luck, and for that reason I think we're going to listen and we're going to be respectful of their views, and we'll go from there.

BLITZER: According to our public opinion polls, it seems there's a significant number of Americans who don't want to necessarily re- elect the president but at the same time they're not yet ready to commit to John Kerry. What does he have to do at this convention here in Boston to convince them that he's ready to be the president?

HEINZ: Well, he'll do it on Thursday night. He's going to underscore why he's the right person to carry out our theme, which is to be stronger at home and respected abroad.

John has 20 years of service in the Senate. He was in the Middlesex -- he was a prosecutor for a long time. And obviously he has the service in Vietnam. He has an amazing life story, He's sort of a throwback in that sense.

And what he needs to do is just let people understand who he is, why he's doing what he's doing, what drives him to serve, and what his vision is for the next four years. I have all the confidence in the world he'll do a great job of that on Thursday.

BLITZER: As you know, the Republicans in the Bush-Cheney campaign have been going after his alleged flip-flops on the issues. In our most recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, we asked if, on the specific issue, if the candidate changes positions on issues for political reasons, 52 percent said Bush does not, 30 percent said Kerry does. Excuse me, that 30 percent, only 30 percent said Kerry does not change his position on issues for political reasons.
That seems to reinforce this flip-flop charge against him.

HEINZ: Well, if someone spent $100 million in advertising and had all their surrogates saying I could fly, I'm sure some particular number of Americans would say that Chris Heinz could fly. I can't fly.

John Kerry has strong values. He is someone who sees the world in all its complexity and shades of gray. And I think it dovetails really well with this president, and it's sort of an ideological administration, which is a chief complaint that a lot of us who are fundamentally moderates, myself included, have with this president.

BLITZER: When you say you're a moderate, your father, of course the late Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, was a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania. I know that, based on reading about you, at one point you were a Republican. When did you become a Democrat?

HEINZ: Well, I'm actually a registered independent. I've been -- I don't know that I've ever been registered as a Republican, but I grew up in a Republican household. My father died when I was 18, so there was really no pressure, you know, voting age 18, you know, it wasn't a big issue to me.

But, you know, moderates -- my heart is with moderate people first, people who look at problems and fight for solutions without an ideological bent, be it Republican or Democrat. And that's really a tone of this campaign.

I definitely support the Democratic Party in down tickets, and I've been working with the party, and I'm so excited about it. And I think they've taken over the place of moderation in American politics. So I'm honored and proud to be associated with it.

But at the end of the day, I just don't think that partisanship is serving this country particularly well.

BLITZER: If you decided at some point in your life to run for a political office as a moderate, do you think you'd feel more comfortable as a moderate in the Republican Party or a moderate in the Democratic Party?

HEINZ: I think that most moderates would feel more comfortable in the Democratic Party. I think that, you know, we look in the Senate now, we have four moderate Republicans, and they're all change agents in their party. They don't have -- they're not a part of the real leadership, and if they are it's because of the strength of personality, in the sense of a Senator McCain.

So I don't think anyone feels very much at home being a moderate on the Republican side, at least in elected government. Now, there are tons of moderate Republicans out there, who are rank-and-file voters, are leaders in their community or work at the state and local level.

We want to give them a home and tell them, look, we may be the Democratic ticket, but all these conservative values that you should hold true to yourself aren't being represented by this administration -- fiscal responsibility, protecting individual rights, all those sorts -- you know, the line between church and state.

I just don't find this administration to be particularly conservative to the letter of the law, nor do I find it to be moderate. It just seems to be something else.

BLITZER: You're going to be introducing your mother, as I said earlier. There was a cover of her in Newsweek magazine earlier in the year, which we'll put up on the screen. And it shows your mother, and it asked the question, "Is John Kerry's heiress wife a loose cannon or crazy like a fox?"

What are you going to tell the American people about your mom Tuesday night that they don't know?

HEINZ: Well, I want to give them, obviously, a little piece of biography. My mother is a first-generation American, and I think it makes an important point. You know, in this country, you can't actually get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as a president if you weren't born in this country, and there are a lot of people, I think, who are at least subliminally disenfranchised because of that.

And not only is my mother a first-generation American, and yes, she's lived an incredible life that is probably atypical of what most immigrants have in this country, but it is a version of the American dream. And, oh, by the way, she can talk in five different languages and hopefully connect with those people and bring them into the process and make them feel like they have a piece of America again.

BLITZER: Are you opening the door to running for a congressional seat, similarly to what your father did many years ago?

HEINZ: Oh, no, I have no plans after November 2nd. I am not trying to be coy. I would say that anything like that, there is very little interest on my part to step outside and say, I'm doing this for myself. You know, I support John. I have problems with this administration. And I'm 31 years old, and I'm still making assessments about what I want to do with my life.

BLITZER: So you're leaving the door open, though, is that fair to say?

HEINZ: Sure, I don't see any reason why not.

BLITZER: Chris Heinz, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it. Good luck at this convention.

HEINZ: Thank you, Wolf.

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