Cerberus Capital Management L.P., the private equity firm that owns the company which made Newtown killer Adam Lanza’s assault rifle has extensive political connections. The company’s senior executive leadership team is stocked with political figures including former Vice President Dan Quayle. Read More
Thanks to the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s career with Bain Capital, private equity has been thrust into the spotlight on the campaign trail with partisans on both sides debating whether the industry has a negative effect on the country. Private Equity Growth Capital Council, a political action committee that was formed in 2007 by several of the country’s largest private equity firms, has responded with a series of videos ”aimed at educating media, policy makers and the public about the private equity industry and its positive contributions to the American economy.”
“The presidential election has brought the private equity business model into sharp focus. But sometimes lost in the political debate is the positive impact private equity brings to the companies in which they invest,” read a statement from PEGCC announcing their latest video. Read More
Former Mayor Ed Koch has had a bit of an independent streak in politics (he endorsed George W. Bush for reelection in 2004, for example), but he’s not joining the ranks of moderate Democrats expressing skepticism of President Barack Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital and Mitt Romney’s record with the company. Read More
Mitt Romney is currently on a fundraising swing through New York City and Democrats like Congressman Jerry Nadler and state party chairman Jay Jacobs used the occasion to blast, as Mr. Nadler framed it, Mr. Romney’s economic “wizardry.”
Of course, neither Mr. Nadler or Mr. Jacobs would attack the financial industry with the same rhetoric as officials in other parts of the country — Mr. Nadler’s district contains many people who work in Wall Street and Mr. Jacobs undoubtedly raises plenty of money from that constituency as well. Read More
America’s biggest private equity companies have spent millions over the past five years lobbying to keep their tax rates low. Several major private equity firms, including Mitt Romney’s former employer, Bain Capital, have paid for lobbyists to fight for the carried interest tax break, which protects the profits-based compensation that makes up a large portion of private equity executives’ pay from regular tax rates. Carried interest became a hot button issue on the campaign trail when Mr. Romney revealed he pays a tax rate of just about 14.65 percent, in large part due to the low tax rates for carried interest. Read More
The Private Equity & Growth Capital Council, which was formed in 2007 by several of the country’s largest private equity firms, quietly formed a political action committee last spring and began making campaign contributions this past summer. New York City Congressman Joe Crowley was one of the top Democratic beneficiaries of donations from the private equity PAC. Read More
