President Obama has taken to attacking GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his tenure as CEO of Bain Capital and the private equity firms track record of job creation or lack thereof. The administration wants to paint these types of firms and Romney’s connections to them as being detrimental to the middle class of America.
There’s only one problem. The President’s very own party has no problem with taking political contributions from Bain Capital. In fact during the last three election cycles, Bain employees have given the Democratic party more than double what they gave to the GOP.
Democratic candidates and party committees have received $1.2 million from Bain, the vast majority of that money came from senior executives.
Republican candidates and party committees raised over $480,000 from those same executives during that same time period.
The President himself has received more than $80,000 from employees of the firm dating back to the beginning of 2007, including $27,500 during the first three quarters of 2011.
“[Democrats are] going to have a difficult time explaining why they’re padding their war chest with contributions from the same executives that they’re accusing of hurting jobs,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Romney meanwhile has collected more money from Bain employees than any federal candidate since the beginning of 2007, amassing more than $166,000 in contributions. He took more than $84,000 from Bain employees in the first three quarters of 2011.
The donations were reported to the Federal Election Commission and culled in a database created by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks federal campaign spending.
Obama does not accept donations directly from lobbyists, but he does from Wall Street executives. According to the Hill.com, campaign finance records also show that Democrats collect more money from Wall Street than the GOP does.
