President Obama's campaign released two new television ads Wednesday, accusing Mitt Romney of implementing policies that were harmful to workers and his constituents as CEO at Bain Capital and then as governor of Massachusetts.
"When Romney ran for governor, he promised that he wouldn’t raise taxes and that he would use the values he learned in business to create jobs. But today’s ads make clear that he broke those promises and left Massachusetts worse off," said a statement released by the campaign along with the ads.
The first 30-second spot, titled "Mosaic," claims Romney raised taxes and fees on residents of the Bay State, while the other ad, "Come and Go," accuses the presumptive Republican presidential nominee of outsourcing both state and private-sector jobs.
"Romney economics: It didn't work then and it won't work now," says a narrator at the end of that ad, an attack echoed in the other 30-second spot.
Although some Democrats have balked and suggested the strategy is unfair, the Obama campaign said earlier this month that it was “just beginning” to roll out attacks against Romney over his tenure at private-equity giant Bain.
"This is a discussion that we’re just beginning, that extends to his public-sector tenure as well in terms of applying that economic philosophy,” said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, on a conference call with reporters at the beginning of June.
While the new ads don't mention Bain Capital by name, they make clear that the campaign has not let up on its strategy, calling Romney a "corporate raider" in one of the commercials.
Romney's successor Gov. Deval Patrick (D), an Obama surrogate, has blasted his predecessor for what he said were failed campaign promises — from creating jobs to reducing the size of government and imposing fiscal discipline in Massachusetts.
"The record, which is relevant, and indeed his only experience in public leadership, in government leadership, doesn't point to the case he's trying to sell to the American people," said Patrick last month.
The Romney campaign responded Wednesday morning to the new round of ads, calling them "misleading" and an attempt to "distract attention from the president's failed policies."
"Mitt Romney was a successful businessman and governor with a decades-long record of helping to create American jobs, in contrast to President Obama's hostility to free enterprise that has left millions of Americans out of work. It's still the economy, and the American people aren't stupid," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul in a statement.
The Romney campaign cited a FactCheck.org report from June that clarified the claims of outsourcing. According to
the report, Romney vetoed a measure that would have "prevented the state from doing business with a state contractor that was locating state customer-service calls in India," which was supported by leading newspapers at the time as a savings to taxpayers.
The campaign also countered that Romney had a record of "fighting for lower taxes" in the commonwealth, saying that as governor he cut taxes 19 times.
The Obama ads are airing in the swing states of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.
