Super PACs label Romney 'economic traitor'

Mitt Romney left his management job at Bain Capital years ago, but two Democratic outside groups are hoping to make the Republican presidential candidate suffer for Bain’s decisions today to outsource jobs to China.

In a new TV- and web-based messaging push, the labor super PAC Workers’ Voice and the Democratic super PAC Patriot Majority slam Romney for a controversial Bain decision to move jobs at the company Sensata from Illinois to China. The move has spurred protests in Illinois, including from the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The two groups will run TV commercials on the story in three markets: Youngstown, Ohio; Green Bay, Wis., and Pittsburgh. A strategist said the Pittsburgh ads are aimed at Ohio voters in the same market. Workers’ Voice and Patriot Majority will also run display ads, Facebook ads and search ads on Google and Bing.

The ads, which cost just under a million dollars, label Romney an “economic traitor" who built a company that now hurts U.S. workers.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Michele Davis pushed back on the messaging a "misleading ad that is attempting to distract voters from President Obama’s failed record on standing up to China."

"President Obama promised to take China ‘to the mat’ but China continues to cheat without consequence as Americans across the country lose their jobs. For four years, we’ve seen the results of President Obama’s failure to stand up to China. Mitt Romney will do it on day one of his Presidency," Davis said.

The anti-Bain TV spot from the super PACs tries to link Romney to the Sensata furor by declaring that Romney “is Bain Capital. He created it, made a fortune in it, even today remains invested in it.” And in the most incendiary part of the ad, a man named Tom Gaulrapp, identified as a longtime Sensata employee, claims that executives took down an American flag while Chinese investors visited the Illinois facility.

“A week before they came, they took the American flag down that flew outside the plant. And the week after they left, they put it back down,” Gaulrap says. “Like we’re supposed to be ashamed that we’re Americans.”

It’s an acid charge to hurl against Romney, and represents perhaps the most provocative attempt to re-inject Bain into the campaign at the 11th hour. Romney has pointed out throughout the 2012 race that he has not made management decisions at Bain for a decade or more, and he’s more than a few steps removed from the Sensata outsourcing.

If you had any illusions about Democrats’ determination to burn Romney to the ground, with whatever methods they have at their disposal, let this be your reality check.