Kerry courts female voters
DES MOINES -- Intensifying his outreach to female voters, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry laid out a "common sense" economic plan at a luncheon yesterday with more than 200 women, promising to spend billions of dollars to improve schools, lower college tuition, and stanch job layoffs.
The Massachusetts senator, whose campaign manager and national chair are women and who employs many other women as aides, used his 40-minute speech to touch on issues such as education, environmental protection, and health care that are popular with female focus groups. He used expressions such as "we'll clean house" in Washington to ally himself with the crowd.
"I'm running for president because the American people are calling 911 for help, and it's about time that someone in the White House picked up the phone," Kerry said. "Middle-class families have an agenda, too, and it's about time someone in the White House held a special meeting for them."
Kerry's plan includes providing $25 billion more a year for two years to states and municipalities to stop education cuts and fee hikes "resulting from [President] Bush's economic policies." In a pledge to keep jobs in America, Kerry also said he would require telephone call centers to identify to customers whether the center is based domestically or overseas, noting that many of them have moved to less developed nations to save money. He also said he would investigate outsourcing of US jobs abroad and stop the government from awarding contracts to foreign companies if the jobs can be done in America.
Kerry kept the focus of his speech squarely on the Bush administration, rather than risk irking his audience with criticism of his two leading rivals in Iowa's Jan. 19 caucuses, former governor Howard Dean of Vermont and Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri. Most public opinion polls put Kerry at third place in Iowa, but he has been campaigning aggressively there, and recently received endorsements from a state legislator and two public safety officials -- a sign that people see him as a winner, campaign aides said.
In a downtown hotel ballroom before a campaign banner with a new slogan, "A Fighter With Results," Kerry described the Bush administration as operating a "corporate crony" policy of access for lobbyists and directors from big business, while shutting out women and ignoring the needs of middle-class and working-class families.
"We need to end an administration that lets companies like Halliburton ship their old boss to the White House and get special treatment while they ship American jobs overseas," Kerry said, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney, who once led the energy giant.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.
