No 1040s, but More Navy Records

On a day that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry continued to release a stream of documents about his military record, his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, reiterated Thursday that she would not release her tax returns because the law did not compel her to do so.

After touring the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom in Franklin Canyon Park with a group of schoolchildren from Silver Lake to celebrate Earth Day, Heinz Kerry told reporters that she had filed a 100-page financial disclosure form with the Senate, fulfilling her legal obligation.

“I do that because I am married to a senator. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have to do it,” she said.

“I abide by the law. But what I have and what I received is not just mine, it is also my children’s, and I don’t know that I have the right to make public what is theirs.”

The Kerrys file separate tax returns. While Heinz Kerry, as a potential first lady, is not required to release hers, presidential candidates and their wives (or husbands, in the case of 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro) customarily do so.

Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, voluntarily released his 2003 returns last week, as did President Bush and his wife, First Lady Laura Bush.

The Kerry campaign has been pressured this week to release documents pertaining to the candidate’s military service, as well as his contacts with lobbyists. Questions about the conditions under which he earned three Purple Heart medals during the Vietnam War were raised, mostly in conservative news and talk outlets.

Kerry responded by releasing hundreds of pages of documents Wednesday, and more on Thursday.

On Thursday, the Kerry campaign posted further files documenting his war record, including numerous pages showing citations and combat history from the division in which Kerry served as leader of a Navy swift boat on the Mekong Delta.

Also included among the 200 pages available on the candidate’s website were “after-action reports” from Kerry’s service as his boat made routine patrol missions along sniper-infested waters.

Those documents, said the campaign, were made public years ago by the Naval Historical Center in Washington. Kerry aides said they would continue to post documents as they became available.

Interest in Heinz Kerry’s tax returns is intense because of the size of her fortune and her influence as a philanthropist. Heinz Kerry, 65, is the widow of Pennsylvania Republican Sen. John Heinz, who was heir to the Heinz condiment fortune. When Heinz died in a plane crash in 1991, she inherited an estimated $500 million.

Heinz Kerry, an environmental activist who was introduced to her current husband by her first husband on Earth Day in 1990, also oversees several philanthropic foundations bearing the Heinz name, with combined assets of about $1.3 billion.

Her personal inheritance, which may consist of as many as 10 private trusts, is apparently deeply entwined with the finances of her three adult sons, John IV, Andre and Christopher.

Though Andre, 34, and Christopher, 31, have campaigned for their stepfather, 37-year-old John, a teacher and Buddhist, is intensely private and does not wish to be drawn into the limelight.

When Heinz Kerry was asked Thursday whether she had discussed releasing her returns with her sons, she said, “No, this has just come up.”

If she were able to separate her finances from those of her children, she said, “I would have no problems” releasing them.

“If some god of taxes would want to come in and look at my portfolio, I would let them, but I don’t think I have a right to put my children’s privacy in the open,” Heinz Kerry said.

The Washington Post had reported Wednesday that the Kerry campaign was rethinking its decision to keep Heinz Kerry’s tax reports secret. Some Kerry aides fear the issue is becoming a political liability, although the campaign could not release the records without her consent.

In a sun-dappled clearing at the Beverly Hills park, which is administered by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Heinz Kerry said she made investments according to certain political and environmental guidelines.

“Suffice it to say, I have very strong standards ... for my investments. I am a conscientious person,” she said.

Among the guidelines she uses, she said, are “Domini screens.”

Those were developed by Amy Domini, a pioneer of the social investment movement. Domini Social Investments, according to its website, helps clients “integrate social and environmental criteria into their investment decisions.”

Heinz Kerry planned to attend several private fundraisers in Los Angeles, including a dinner tonight at the home of producer Steve Stabler. She also planned to visit Santa Barbara.

Times staff writer John M. Glionna contributed to this report.