Related: Markey Responding Meekly to Gomez Challenge
"Gomez makes bid for Democratic voters in debate; Partisan ties at forefront in candidates’ second debate" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, June 12, 2013
Gabriel E. Gomez sought to distance himself from the national Republican Party, using Tuesday’s second US Senate debate to embrace some key Democratic initiatives, but rival Edward J. Markey countered that, on too many issues, Gomez lines up with conservatives.
Gomez, as in the first debate, was the more aggressive of the two, turning nearly every question into an attack on Representative Markey and his nearly four decades in Washington. Markey, who is leading in the polls two weeks before the election, chose not to respond directly to most barbs, instead proclaiming his own Democratic bona fides.
The topics covered during the hourlong debate in Springfield focused on a range of serious policy questions, and there were few openly combative exchanges. The matchup did, however, illuminate several stark policy differences on issues including taxes, the environment, and restrictions on political spending.
Perhaps the most surprising moments came when Gomez unexpectedly announced his support for two Democratic bills, one that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10 an hour and another that would ensure pay equity for women in the workplace. He embraced the bills as he scrambled to push back against Markey’s attempts to paint him as too far to the right for Massachusetts....
The debate was hosted by WGBY-TV, Springfield’s public television station. Although it was streamed live on the Internet, it was not shown on television in Boston, meaning its impact on the race could be limited to Western Massachusetts. The candidates have one more debate, in Boston on June 18, before the June 25 special election to fill the seat that John F. Kerry left to become secretary of state.
Two recent polls show Markey with a seven percentage-point lead over Gomez, although one of those polls suggested that Gomez has been surging in recent weeks.
For much of the debate, Gomez’s party affiliation was a main flashpoint....
Gomez, calling himself a “green Republican,” said that, when it comes to climate change, “there are people in my party who deny science.”
Sigh. I'm so sick of that agenda-pu$hing fart mist in the face of weather.
He added, however, that he would support construction of the Keystone XL pipeline extension, a project fiercely opposed by many environmentalists. The proposed extension would bring oil from Canadian tar sands through the American heartland to Texas.
Related: Boston Globe Energizer
While Gomez argued the project could create jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil, Markey said it depends on the “dirtiest oil in the world,” which would be shipped overseas. “What’s in it for the US?” he asked. “Where’s the economic benefit?”
ED KNOWS where the oil is going!!!
--more--"
"Gabriel Gomez steps up his game" by Scot Lehigh | Globe Columnist, June 12, 2013
After a poor performance in the first debate, Republican Gabriel Gomez needed to up his game — and he did that last night. It was much more measured and interesting Republican who showed up at the Western Massachusetts debate.
As for Democrat Ed Markey, he was what he always is. Not bad, not great. Not dull, but hardly inspiring.
He was, in other words, what he is: Steady Eddie, a man with an unflappable manner, a mastery of the issues, an impressive record, and the predictable set of liberal positions.
The view here is that, unlike the first debate, which I thought Markey won, there wasn’t a clear victor — or an obvious loser.
That said, Gomez was so much improved that his campaign has to feel good about the way it went....
In general, Gomez did a good job portraying himself as a centrist with bipartisan inclinations....
Although he didn’t match Markey on substance, Gomez did add a little policy heft by suggesting that one way to help the economy is to allow companies to bring foreign profits home at a reduced tax rate.
A second bad debate would have sealed Gomez’s fate. Last night he turned in the kind of performance that will create some buzz – and bring an interested audience to the final encounter next week in Boston.
--more--"
Related: Joe Biden praises Edward Markey at event
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Gabriel Gomez’s identity problem
"Gomez seldom the deal maker" by Beth Healy and Stephanie Ebbert | Globe Staff, June 13, 2013
A 13-year career in Boston’s private equity sector made Gabriel Gomez a millionaire and gave him the business credentials he often cites on the campaign trail. He says he knows what it takes to help companies and employees “prosper and thrive.”
But in a business where executives who buy and sell companies at a profit become the stars, the Republican candidate for US Senate participated in relatively few deals and never earned a promotion to partner. He would ultimately shift to a marketing role at his firm.
A Globe review of Gomez’s nine years at Advent International, an elite private equity firm, found that he was directly involved in just half a dozen companies and helped lead only one of those investments. The one deal he touts, Lululemon Athletica Inc., is one Advent credits to other executives.
Related: Gomez Gets His Moment in the Globe
Starting to see through him as well.
Gomez has refused to discuss his investing career in any detail. He declined numerous requests by the Globe for interviews about his business experience, answering questions only briefly at one campaign stop before walking away from reporters. Last week, he shouted over his shoulder, “I’m happy to compare resumes with Congressman Markey,’’ shortly before stepping into his car.
On his website, Gomez tells voters he helped pension funds invest for workers’ retirement and built regional businesses into household names. But he also had a role in applying common private equity strategies that are often controversial with voters — piling debt on companies and laying off workers or moving jobs overseas. Gomez’s involvement in a company called Synventive Molding Solutions was a case in point....
Just what we need in Washington, 'eh?
Synventive had 550 employees when Advent bought it. By 2009, the economy was in trouble, and two of Synventive’s largest customers, General Motors and Chrysler, had filed for bankruptcy. The company’s head count fell to 500, in part due to layoffs in Peabody. At the same time, Synventive was expanding rapidly in China as it shifted some manufacturing and engineering functions there and to Germany.
“It was a good company, except things changed a lot over the years,’’ said David Scatterday, a mechanical engineer who worked at Synventive for 20 years before being laid off, with a year’s severance. “You lost a lot of the good qualities you had with the original owners.” And, he recalled, “A lot of business went to China.”
That the jobs went overseas is acknowledged by federal officials. In March 2009, 18 laid-off Synventive workers, many over age 50, were offered government aid to retrain, specifically because their jobs were being moved overseas, according to the Department of Labor.
In a brief interview, Gomez denied shifting Synventive jobs to China. “There weren’t jobs moved overseas,” he said, explaining that the company simply expanded where business was growing. “The biggest producers in the automotive industry back then were over in Asia.’’
While Gomez served on its board, Synventive pursued large, multi-year tax breaks in China, including two years free of corporate and local income taxes and 50 percent tax breaks for five years through 2012, according to the company’s financial statements.
A spokesman for Advent said the Asian expansion was not aimed at replacing American workers with lower-cost labor, but rather at supplying Asian manufacturers close to their own facilities.
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: H1-B Hijacking
Insource, outsource, what is the difference?
Growing revenues in China helped Synventive weather the US recession, the spokesman said, and saved American jobs over the long run. The company had 770 employees globally when Advent sold it.
I'm tired of liars.
But the deal would fail for Advent in the way that matters most in the private equity world: It lost money for the firm and its investors. Struggling with $160 million in debt in 2010, Synventive was taken over by another investment firm the next year....
Democrats have seized on Gomez’s reticence to talk about his private equity record, and he has deflected pressure from an advocacy group to disclose his investments....
But he has nothing to hide.
Speaking to voters, Gomez describes himself first as “a Navy guy.” When he talks about business, Gomez sticks to broad brush strokes on his professional life since leaving the military in 1996 and earning his Harvard MBA....
A natural politician.
Gomez knows well how a bad economy can drag down companies — especially when coupled with a heavy debt burden. He saw the combination up close again at Keystone Automotive Operations Inc.
Gomez was named a director at Keystone near the end of Advent’s involvement in the company — five years after selling most of its stake to Boston’s Bain Capital for $440 million. Advent had by then tripled its money on the deal. Gomez, joining the board in 2008 with a number of Bain directors, was charged with overseeing Advent’s remaining 10 percent interest.
Yeah, the Hispanic will clean it up.
While Gomez was a director, Keystone consolidated facilities, merged call centers, and “implemented a cost reduction program throughout the company,’’ according to filings with securities regulators....
In one round of cutbacks, 22 accounting workers in Pennsylvania were let go, according to a Labor Department report, because their work was shifted to a foreign country. In 2011, struggling with about $400 million in debt, the Exeter, Pa.-based company filed for bankruptcy. Bain lost a bundle, and Advent lost its remaining stake.
These episodes did not burnish Gomez’s resume. But neither can they be blamed entirely on him....
Colleagues say they liked Gomez and were drawn to his life story — successful son of an immigrant family, ambitious Navy SEAL, and a hard worker. Even without an illustrious investment record, he earned $10.1 million from 2006 through 2011, according to tax filings released by the campaign. His personal investments exceed $11.3 million, according to his financial disclosure report....
Of his time at Advent, Gomez said he is most proud of his involvement with the firm’s investment in Lululemon. But Advent gave him no credit for that deal on its website, citing several other executives instead.
Gomez’s main contribution appears to have been introducing former Reebok International Ltd. executive Bob Meers to Advent, which later named him interim chief executive at Lululemon. Advent made about seven times its money on the $93 million investment, taking the company public just two years later, in 2007. A Vancouver, British Columbia, business that had 20 stores and $70 million in revenue when Advent bought it today operates 215 stores generating $1.4 billion in revenue.
“It’s just a great success story,” Gomez said. “We turned a Canadian company into an American company.”
Indeed, Lululemon now employs 6,383 people, 53 percent of them in the United States, in retail stores, distribution and other functions, according to a company report in February. Canada has 40 percent of the workers; the rest are outside North America.
The manufacturing work also left Canada; just 3 percent now takes place in North America. As the company has boomed, most of the manufacturing has gone to China and Southeast Asia, according to company filings.
In a debate this week in Springfield with his opponent, US Representative Edward J. Markey, Gomez cited the need for new trade agreements to help bring manufacturing jobs to the United States. “We were a manufacturing hub before,’’ Gomez said of Western Massachusetts. “We need to return back to a manufacturing hub.”
But at a campaign event last week, when the Globe asked about his record of helping create jobs in China, rather than in the United States, Gomez said, “That’s not true.” Then he slammed his car door and an aide drove him away.
Running from the lies already.
--more--"
The lies are running to the other guy:
"In brief Boston visit, Obama boosts Markey candidacy" by Jim O’Sullivan and Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, June 13, 2013
Democrats are campaigning vigorously in the final weeks of the Senate campaign. On Saturday, former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to stump for Markey in Worcester.
Markey, sweat beaded on his forehead, worked the crowd after Obama had left the arena Wednesday. The rally marked a pivot point for the campaign as it ramps up its get-out-the-vote effort, Markey told the Globe in a short interview.
“What the president does is he comes in as the guy that frames the final 13 days, so everyone’s energy ratchets up to another level,” Markey said.
A night earlier, at a Washington fund-raiser for Markey, Vice President Joe Biden warned that the 37-year congressman will not benefit from presidential tailwinds atop the ballot.
“Barack Obama’s not at the head of the ticket,” Biden said. “And that means those legions of African-Americans and Latinos are not automatically going to come out. No one has energized them like Barack Obama. But he’s not on the ticket. So don’t take this one for granted.”
*************************
Gomez invited the president to campaign with him in Chelsea, the latest in a string of attempts to prove he is not a party-line Republican. He later accused Markey of marching in lockstep with Democrats.
“What Washington needs more than ever is not another hyperpartisan politician,” said Gomez campaign adviser Lenny Alcivar. “Washington needs a bipartisan problem-solver who’s not tied to the old ways of doing business and has the courage to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats to get things done.”
Gomez again took an opportunity to break with a national GOP figure by slamming US Representative Trent Franks, who on Wednesday said that “the incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.”
Gomez wasted little time before ripping the Arizona Republican.
“I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation,” Gomez told ABC News. He added, “I have no idea what goes into the mind of a moron like that. . . . These kinds of comments only come from a moron, and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit.”
Sure he isn't pond scum?
Two polls released Monday showed Gomez within 7 percentage points of Markey, an uncomfortably close margin for many Democrats, but one they hope to build upon with a voter-turnout operation that propelled Patrick and US Senator Elizabeth Warren to victory.
It's within the range for a successful rigging.
Even as the Obama administration grapples with a spate of controversies that have rocked Washington, Markey’s campaign has steadfastly maintained that the Senate election stands as a referendum on Obama’s presidency.
Don't make it a referendum on him! You'll lose!
Obama’s visit struck a decidedly different tone than his last visit to Boston, when he spoke during an interfaith service three days after the Boston Marathon bombings....
While at the Reggie Lewis Center, Obama met with family members of Sean A. Collier, the MIT officer police say was shot to death by the Marathon bombing suspects, a White House official said....
He did not visit the Marathon bombing site on Boylston Street, despite stopping nearby for lunch.
Hmm.
At Charlie’s, a chipper president hugged and greeted patrons in the hole-in-the-wall spot that has drawn other famous customers over the years, including Sammy Davis Jr., Nomar Garciaparra, and Al Gore....
It was not all politics for Obama at Charlie’s. With an impending trip to Miami Beach Wednesday night for a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser, the president wanted a bite to go.
“He wanted something to eat in the car,” said Chris Manjourides, who owns Charlie’s with three siblings. “He didn’t have time. He was starving.”
Ronny Alfaro, who cooked the presidential patty in the tiny kitchen, said security personnel stood by the grill and watched him prepare the meal....
Also see: President Obama visits Charlie’s
--more--"
