H. J. Heinz Co. is in a pickle. The Pittsburgh-based foodmaker has been deluged with e-mails from unhappy consumers who want to know why it's involved in the presidential campaign. The company's emphatic answer is, "We're not," and it has hired some big-time Republican lobbyists to help spread the word. "We make ketchup; we don't make politics," asserts Jack Smyth, a Heinz senior vice president. Still, it's easy to see why customers might think otherwise. The multimillionaire wife of Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, is often referred to in the press as "the ketchup heiress." Teresa...