PRICELESS: National Co-Chair for Obama’s Reelection Campaign Is a Private Equity Manager Whose Firm Closed Factories and Terminated Hundreds of Workers

Federico Pena, vulture capitalist

(The Daily Caller) — One of President Barack Obama’s top campaign spokesmen is a private equity manager whose firm has shut down several factories and laid off hundreds of people amid a stalled economy.
Federico Pena’s role at Vestar Capital Partners has emerged as Obama’s aides and deputies continue their effort to portray former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s investment career as ruthless, job-destroying, profit-maximizing “vulture capitalism.” Pena has been a partner at Vestar since 2000.
Pena is a former mayor of Denver in swing-state Colorado, a former cabinet member for President Bill Clinton and one of 35 “national co-chairs” of the president’s 2012 campaign. . . .
Pena has already contributed $5,000 to Obama’s campaign, even though Vestar laid off 1,000 workers from Del Monte this month, closed three factories and laid off 540 people at Solo Cup Co., and fired another 500 workers at BirdsEye food-processor in 2006, according to the report.
The Pena revelation follows reports highlighting the venture capital careers of two people on the president’s jobs council.
Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup, is a senior adviser at Providence Equity Partners, and Mark Gallogly is a co-founder of Centerbridge Partners. . . .
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