by Chas Danner
CNN went through the facts behind yesterday's brutal new ad from pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA, in which former GST Steel worker Joe Soptic claimed his wife's cancer and subsequent death were related to Bain Capital shutting down his employer. Based on what they found the ad is clearly misleading:
Romney stopped his day-to-day oversight at Bain Capital in 1999 when he left to run the Salt Lake City Olympics, though he officially remained CEO until 2002. Bain Capital shut down GST Steel in 2001, costing Soptic his job. According to Mr. Soptic, his wife received her primary insurance through her employer – a local thrift store called Savers – and retained it even after his layoff. Soptic's policy through GST Steel was her secondary coverage.
In 2002, Mitt Romney formally left Bain. Sometime in 2002 or 2003, Mr. Soptic says his wife injured her rotator cuff and was forced to leave her job. As a result she lost her health insurance coverage and Mr. Soptic's new job as a janitor did not provide coverage for his spouse. It was a few years later, in 2006, that Ilyona Soptic went to the hospital with symptoms of pneumonia. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer and passed away just days later.
Zeke Miller passes along Soptic's history of involvement with the Obama campaign:
Soptic was featured in the controversial ad aired by the Obama campaign in May that called Romney a "vampire" — a charge that drew condemnation from Democrats, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Soptic has also appeared on at least one conference call for the Obama campaign, before taping spots for the officially sanctioned pro-Obama super PAC.
The longstanding relationship with Soptic strains the Obama campaign's evasiveness on the Priorities ad, in which aides have said they can't comment on it because they are unfamiliar with the facts. It also tests the fuzzy lines between super PACs and their affiliated, but technically uncoordinated, campaigns.
The Dish 