NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Bush supporters: Feel free to use Heinz ketchup on your next meal.

Teresa Heinz Kerry's late husband was a descendant of the condiment giant's founder.

H. J. Heinz Co. said, in a response to a New York lawmaker's anti-ketchup remarks, it is not affiliated politically with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, according to the Saratogian, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y., newspaper.

The Saratogian reported that New York Assemblyman James Tedisco said at a Saratoga County Republican rally Sept. 12 that using the condiment maker's signature product is equal to supporting Kerry's bid to unseat President Bush.

Tedisco told the crowd that Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is connected to Heinz (HNZ: Research, Estimates), and he will not eat another ounce of ketchup until Election Day, according to the paper.

"I heard they get a nickel for every ounce of ketchup we eat. I'm a mustard man until Nov. 2," Tedisco said in the GOP rally, the Saratogian reported.

But Tedisco's remarks drew fire from H.J. Heinz.

Heinz Kerry's late husband was the grandson of the founder, but neither she nor Kerry are involved in the condiment maker's business, the company told the Saratogian, responding to Tedisco's comments.

The company said Heinz Kerry is chairwoman of the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, but the couple doesn't "hold a significant percentage of shares of the H.J. Heinz Company," according to the article.

'Heinz ketchup is America's favorite ketchup and enjoyed by Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike,' Debora Foster, the company's vice president for corporate communications, wrote in a letter to the editor of the paper.

The Saratogian said Heinz's political action committee has donated $5,000 to the Bush campaign and $5,000 to the Democratic National Committee since Kerry's campaign doesn't accept such donations.

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Still, Tedisco, a Schenectady Republican whose district includes part of Saratoga County, said he will stick with mustard and has not yet made an apology to the ketchup maker.

What's more, the Heinz family's connection to the Kerry campaign has inspired at least two upstart entrepreneurs to take a run at the condiment king.

W Ketchup, launched in April by Republican banker Bill Zachary. "You don't support Democrats," the company's Web site asks. "Why should your ketchup?"

Another brand, called Bush Country Ketchup, began sales this summer, claiming to be "the official ketchup of Right-thinking Americans."