And in Illinois, rebounding Gov. Pat Quinn (D) has relentlessly attacked the private-equity career of his GOP opponent, Bruce Rauner.
Even Newt Gingrich is attacking the "vulture capitalists" in the private-equity industry.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. presidential election, by some accounts, is sinking to record depths of negativity and nastiness, with unprecedented attacks on Wall Street, especially the private-equity industry.
Mr. Perry, in attacking Mr. Romney, derided the "vulture capitalism" of the private-equity world, while defending the regular sort.
That's not the private-equity way.
WALL STREET JOURNAL In Defense of Private Equity | Jonathan Macey writes in a column in The Wall Street Journal that the recent attacks on the private equity industry are "anticapitalist claptrap".
He has also publicly expressed concern with political attacks on the private equity industry, calling them "vicious," "politically motivated," and "inaccurate and unfair" during a conference call with reporters in February.
As Mitt Romney has established himself as the front-runner for the Republican nomination, not only has his record at Bain Capital come under intense scrutiny and withering attacks — but so has the private equity industry.
The political prize that eluded him in 2008, and his father, George, four decades before that, is suddenly within agonizingly close reach, despite it all: an ugly and seemingly endless primary, wall-to-wall attacks by Democrats on the private equity firm he founded, a botched foreign trip and, not infrequently, gaffes.
Winning Our Future spent millions of dollars pounding Mr. Romney with advertisements this winter, injecting into the race some of the toughest and most sustained attacks on his record at the private equity firm Bain Capital.
