Well, both Kessler and factcheck have again updated their sites. Here is what factcheck says in response to the new allegations (and they quote Kessler as well).
Update, July 13: The Post’s Kessler awarded three of his “Pinocchios” to the Obama camp’s claim that SEC filings show Romney might be guilty of a felony.
Kessler notes (among other things) that Romney’s time at the Olympics was the subject of hearings before the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission in 2002, when Democrats sought and failed to disqualify Romney as a candidate for governor on grounds that he had been living in Utah.
After holding hearings for three days, during which Romney testified, the bipartisan ballot panel unanimously adopted “findings of fact” that said Romney was employed in Massachusetts “until 1999” when he left for Utah.
Ballot Law Commission, June 25, 2002: On or about February 11, 1999, the Respondent [Romney] became an employee of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for a fixed term of three years. While so employed, the Respondent worked, on average, over 12 hours per day, 6 days per week.
During this time Romney remained on the boards of Staples and another company in which Bain had invested, LifeLike Co., a company that made dolls. As evidence of his continued ties to Massachusetts, the report states that Romney “returned to Massachusetts from Utah to attend meetings at Staples.” But there’s no mention of Romney attending any business meetings at Bain itself or any of Bain’s investment funds.
We note for the record our disagreement with a July 12 Huffington Post report, which cites Romney’s membership on the LifeLike board as evidence that his claim to have had no active involvement with Bain or any Bain entity is “false.” No so, in our judgment.
We think the term “Bain Capital entity” on Romney’s disclosure forms could only refer to Bain’s various investment funds, not to companies in which it invested. And in the three days that Romney sought to document his continued ties to Massachusetts, so he could run for governor, he made no mention of attending any meetings at Bain itself or any of the various Bain partnerships.
LifeLike was one of Bain’s smaller investments, and a failure. A Jan. 9 Wall Street Journal report says that in 1996 Bain had invested $2.1 million in the privately held Colorado firm for a stake of “unknown size,” but sold those shares in late 2001 for $15,000. The company was later liquidated, the Journal reported.
On the broader question of Romney’s involvement with Bain during this time, we concur with Kessler’s conclusion. “The Obama campaign is blowing smoke here,” he says, adding “the weight of evidence suggests that Romney did in fact end active management of Bain in 1999.”
– Brooks Jackson, with Rob Farley and Eugene Kiely
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