Super PAC pushes back, calls on Romney to help with ad errors

The group behind “King of Bain,” a 28-minute video attacking Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital, has called on Romney to help identify errors in the film.

Winning our Future, a “super PAC” backing Newt Gingrich, has used the film as the basis for attack ads airing on television in South Carolina, where the GOP primary campaign is in full gear. The film has been reviewed by a number of fact-checking organizations, which have concluded that it contains inaccuracies and distortions.

Gingrich, who is not legally allowed to discuss the ad campaign with the super PAC, called on the group publicly to fix the errors or take down the video and the ads derived from it.

Gregg Phillips, the managing director of Winning our Future, wrote in a letter to Romney that he had reviewed the research that was used to produce the film and “found the documentation to be in order and comprehensive.”

“We will agree to review our ads and/or the video to reflect any errors that may be present in the current version of the video,” Phillips wrote. “To do this, however, we respectfully request you answer a few questions that might help guide our review.”

Five questions follow, largely centered around the timing of Romney’s affiliation with Bain.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul dismissed the letter.

“It is sad to see just how desperate Speaker Gingrich and his allies have become as his campaign continues to flounder,” Saul said in a statement. “It is a matter of public record that Mitt Romney left Bain Capital in 1999 to run the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. At that time, he gave up all management control and operational responsibility over the firm and its investments.”

kim.geiger@latimes.com