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Richard Gephardt visits Manchester, NH, printing company after announcing presidential bid for 2004

Presidential hopeful Richard Gephardt, the former Democratic majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and a 1988 candidate for president, visited Keystone Press in Manchester, NH, last month to garner attention for his campaign for his party’s nomination, and to talk about concerns of small business owners.

“A lot of our discussion focused on the rising costs of health care,” said Ken Szarek, Keystone’s general manager and son of owner Ron Szarek. “We pay 100 percent of the cost of health benefits for all of our single employees and 50 percent of the cost for our married employees, but it is getting tougher and tougher to do that with the way the costs of health benefits keep increasing.

“The congressman said he has a plan to help small business owners, but he didn’t go into the details during his visit,” Szarek said.
He said a staff worker from Gephardt’s office called three weeks before the March 6 visit to ask if the congressman could visit for a tour of the facility in early March.

“This was the first time that a presidential candidate had come to our shop so it was exciting and a good learning experience,” Szarek said. “This was also a good opportunity to get our name out there and let people know who we are.”

In addition to Gephardt’s staff of five to eight people, the 23-employee shop had to accommodate 25 to 30 members of the media who were following the Missouri congressman after he announced his intention to run for the Democratic nomination for president in less than two years.

New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary is less than a year away, so Granite State business owners and residents are bracing for the increase in campaign activity.

Gephardt joins a crowded field of Democrats. To date, there are nine declared candidates for the party’s nomination.

Keystone Press, located just east of downtown Manchester, has been in continual operation since 1915. Szarek’s father has owned the company since 1971.

Owned & Published by Printing Industries of New England