Private equity has been the focal point of this year’s presidential campaign.
Democrats and the White House have used Republican Mitt Romney’s past private-equity deals to paint the image that Bain Capital helped destroy companies and put Americans out of work.
Still, President Obama is closely aligning himself with supporters who have PE deals in their own closets with less than stellar results for Americans while the investors profited handsomely.
Obama National Campaign Co-Chair Federico Pena led a buyout of a rural telephone company that looks very much like the criticized Romney deals, but has received little attention. Obama last year called former Denver Mayor Pena “one of the finest public servants in Colorado history.”
Pena joined private-equity firm Vestar Capital Partners in 1998, where he is now a senior adviser, after serving as Energy and Transportation secretaries in the Clinton administration.
One of the first deals Pena led for Vestar was supposed to benefit consumers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
