Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing President Obama's reelection efforts, came out on Sunday with a new ad attacking Bain Capital for what it frames as the firm's mishandling of a steel plant closure.
The web ad features Donnie Box, a former worker at a GST Steel plant, who explains how "Romney and Bain Capital shut this place down."
"They promised us health care packages, they promised to maintain our retirement program. And those were the first two things that disappeared," he said.
He added: "They don't live in this neighborhood. They don't live in this part of the world."
The ad comes as a part of the $7 million ad buy the PAC announced in May, and will run in swing states of Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. Though Bain Capital and Romney's experience as CEO of the firm have largely fallen to the wayside in favor of debates over Obama's handling of the economy -- recently inflamed by Obama's comment that the "private sector is doing fine" -- Priorities USA Action has focused solely on Bain Capital with this ad buy thus far.
One ad, issued in May, featured criticism of Bain Capital issued by a different former GST Steel worker, and another May ad attacked Bain's record with the office supply company Ampad. And a recent memo circulated by the super PAC, reported by Politico, makes the case for focusing on an issue that some have seen as politically risky in recent weeks, as Obama surrogates have strayed from the campaign message on private capital.
“While criticism of Romney’s business record may not resonate with elites, it is clearly resonating with the actual voters who will decide this election,” Priorities USA strategist Bill Burton wrote in the memo.
But the Romney campaign hasn't forgotten how tricky the Bain issue has become in recent weeks, and, in response to the Priorities USA Action ad, Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul strove to remind reporters of the fact that not all Democrats agree on the issue.
"President Obama’s own supporters – even former President Clinton – have criticized these distorted attacks on free enterprise, calling them ‘nauseating’ and ‘unfair.’ Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has the record and pro-growth plan to fix the economy and get our country back on the right track,” she said in a statement.
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