The Obama campaign is using Bain Capital layoffs to boost their standing in Florida, hoping tales of a closed plant in the MIami area will sour voters on Mitt Romney’s economic message as the presumptive GOP nominee campaigns in the state this week.
On Wednesday, the campaign held a conference call on Dade Behring, a medical supply company bought by Bain in the 1990s that subsequently cut 850 jobs in Florida. Bain later ended up making $242 million selling its shares, but the company struggled afterwards and went bankrupt it 2002 amid cries from creditors that the private equity firm had hobbled it with debt to benefit their investors. Bain says it should be considered a success overall, however, since It eventually rebounded and was bought by Siemens for $7 billion in 2007.
The Obama call included a former Dade Behring worker, Cindy Hewitt, who described having to process layoffs and help pink-slipped workers deal with their loss of a job as human resources manager at the time.
“Mitt romney and his partners walked away with millions of dollars and we walked away with nothing,” she said.
