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 Since the day Bain Capital LLC partner Stephen Pagliuca entered the Massachusetts race to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat, the candidate likely knew Bain portfolio company American Pad & Paper would be dredged up and used against him -- even though the story is well worn and over 15 years old. Now that some polls put him in second place in the race, his opponents have been using it, and The Boston Globe's editorial board is defending their use of it even though it is a weak argument. The Ampad story first surfaced in 1994 when Kennedy was facing a stiff competition from then-Bain partner Mitt Romney -- that was until Kennedy dispatched laid-off Ampad employees to protest at Romney campaign events. Ultimately, the ploy helped Kennedy solidify his lead and re-election. For Romney, who would later become the governor of Massachusetts, Ampad has dogged his entire political career, most recently during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. But how relevant is Ampad today? Pagliuca calls it a distortion, notes a Globe story. Indeed, Ampad is just one deal of many. In fact, in the last decade, Bain has been involved in almost 100 deals, according to The Deal Pipeline. And only one of its deals, KB Toys Inc., had serious problems, which ended in a Chapter 11 filing, according to The Deal Pipeline. For deals more representative of Pagliuca, look to Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE:BKC), Hospital Corp. of America and Warner Chilcott Corp. where he is a director, according to Forbes. Burger King is a classic turnaround tale where Bain and its partners TPG Capital and Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE:GS) helped fix a company with declining sales and a troublesome franchise network (subscribers, see related story in The Deal Pipeline). With a month left before the primary, Pagliuca is at best running second place in some polls, and it's doubtful Ampad is the only thing holding him back. A Suffolk University poll shows he lacks strong name recognition, despite owning the Boston Celtics, notes Bloomberg News. However, should he close the gap with front-runner Attorney General Martha Coakley, she always has Ampad. - Matthew Wurtzel
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Ampad is relative today in the sense, it is a display of the 'mentality' and actions of the "Bain" Group--Ruthlessness. Bain has moved jobs out of the U.S., and Romney is still a silent partner in Bain.
This guy is a Romney man, no matter what political party he is with, Romneys ambitions transcends political parties. The nation is not watching the goings on in Detroit. A big time $$$ Romney backer,close family friend,and big time business man it all tied up with the disgraced Kwame Kilpatrick. There is more scandal which will be coming forward out of this and it is all wrapped up in strippers, wild parties, murder, and what looks more and more like, blackmail, buy off and bribery. Most of the leading Michigan and Detroit Republican movers and shakers are all tied up in this. --- Ampad is relevant because it shows the mentality and things to come for our nation if Romney gets in. We don't need a real like Christmas Carol, without the benefit of the three ghosts - past, present and future.