Obama Targets Iowa’s Blue Collar Workers

Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007 | 6:46 a.m.

Details of a television ad released Thursday by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign.

TITLE: "High and Dry."

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

AIRING: Iowa.

SCRIPT: Barack Obama: "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message."

David Hartgrave of Cedar Rapids, Iowa: "I worked here for 33 years. Did everything that they asked me to do. The executives decided to take $19 million out of our pension fund. Didn't return it. Thought I was going to be getting $1,500 a month. I only got $379."

Obama: "I'm telling the CEOs it hurts America when they cash out and leave workers high and dry. It's an outrage. And you've got to have someone in the White House who believes it's an outrage."

Hartgrave: "Barack Obama's gonna look out for me."

KEY IMAGES: Hartgrave stands speaking in front of the abandoned Wilson Foods plant in Cedar Rapids. A newspaper headline appears on the screen that says, "Farmstead to notify workers of end of pension plan" and fades to Hartgrave taking a walk with his wife. Text appears on the screen that says, "The Obama Plan: Reform pension and bankruptcy laws to protect workers, not CEOs." Then Obama is shown speaking to people who nod in agreement when he says it's an outrage.

ANALYSIS: The commercial comes a day after Obama gave a speech in Iowa focused on improving the economy for the middle class. The push is aimed at blue collar workers, who make up a majority of Iowa caucus goers. While polling shows Obama leading rival Hillary Rodham Clinton among higher-income and college-educated voters, the campaigns are in a tough fight for the blue collar vote. Hartgrave, 72, of Cedar Rapids, told The Associated Press he worked at the Wilson Foods packing plant in Cedar Rapids until it closed March 1, 1990. He said he and many others had put in money for their retirement fund and had planned out their lives according to what they believed they'd receive. Instead, he said when the plant closed CEOs pulled $19 million from the pension fund. Hartgrave said about three or four weeks ago he went to see Obama at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and after telling Obama his situation the senator approached him about recording his experience. He said he's happy how the ad turned out and supports Obama for president. "We're trying to get out that people should step forward to let our legislators know as well as those running for president that companies shouldn't be doing this to people who've worked hard their whole life," he said.

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Analysis by Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler. AP Writer Nafeesa Syeed in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.

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