Priorities USA, the super-PAC supporting President Obama's reelection campagn, released a new ad Tuesday slamming GOP challenger Mitt Romney over his tenure at private-equity giant Bain Capital.
The ad features former workers who lost their jobs after Bain took over their company.
"This was a booming place, and Mitt Romney and Bain Capital turned it into a junkyard," one former employee says, says of his hometown after his former company was shut down.
According to Priorities, the ad is part of a multimillion-dollar television and online ad campaign slated to air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, key battleground states.
“Mitt Romney is making promises to the American people in the same way he made promises to the thousands of middle class workers whose lives were devastated by his business decisions,” said former White House official and Priorities USA senior strategist Bill Burton in a statement. “If Romney claims his business experience is the reason he should be elected president, it's important that voters know the impact that experience already had on thousands of middle class families.”
The ads are similar to a series that aired over the summer, also featuring former employees of companies taken over by Bain.
The president’s campaign and allies have hammered Romney frequently over his role at Bain Capital, charging the private-equity firm with profiting from shuttering domestic businesses and costing American workers jobs.
Romney has defended his work at Bain, saying his experiences there will help him right the economy and arguing that the company managed to successfully turn around many struggling business.
Republicans charge that Democrats are focusing on Bain to distract from the president’s own business record.
But the Obama campaign has continued to hit Romney over Bain, seeking to paint him as out of touch with the concerns of working Americans in the midst of a weak economy.
In a memo released last weekend, Priorities said it would continue to pound Romney's Bain ties over the final two weeks of the election.
"From now until Election Day, we will make sure that voters understand that Mitt Romney's promise to apply his business experience to Washington would mean policies that benefit the very wealthiest like himself at the expense of middle-class families," the memo reads. "The Americans best equipped to share that story are those who have already heard Romney's broken promises and experienced the devastating impact."
Priorities’s latest ad blitz comes as the pro-Romney super-PAC Restore our Future is launching a $17.7 million ad buy in key battleground states.
The pro-Romney group debuted two new ads, one featuring an Iraq veteran speaking of the Republican nominee's compassion and work to aid veterans and a second video slamming Obama over the economy.
The Restore our Future ads will air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
