Ad campaign spotlights company shuttered by Bain, calls Mitt Romney a ‘job destroyer’

Byron Tau, Politico

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 2 a.m.

The Obama campaign is launching a multi-pronged, multimedia attack on Mitt Romney’s record as a private equity buyout specialist.

A two-minute ad, entitled “Steel,” will air in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia. A longer version of the ad is available at romneyeconomics.com, a website that examines Romney’s record in detail.

The thrust of the attack examines Romney’s record at Bain Capital and tells story of GST Steel — a company whose Kansas City plant was shuttered after Bain purchased it in 1993.

“Bain Capital walked away with a lot of money that they made off of this plant. We view Mitt Romney as a job destroyer,” one of the plant workers say in the ad.

Describing the website romneyeconomics.com, the campaign said: “In a career of buying and selling companies, Romney’s pattern was to reap quick profits for himself and his investors at the expense of workers and communities. Sometimes it meant sending American jobs overseas. Other times, it meant cutting wages and benefits. In Romney’s economic philosophy, CEOs and wealthy investors prosper by any means necessary, even when it meant companies failed and workers were left behind. Romney believes in two sets of rules — one for people like him, another for everyone else.”

The attacks on Romney’s private equity record also surfaced not only in the winter Republican primary, but also in Mitt Romney’s 1994 senate race against the late Ted Kennedy. Kennedy produced a series of ads, including some that never aired, accusing Romney of layoffs and destroying jobs.