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 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.”
