If your in Wisconsin, you've heard some variation of Ron Johnson bragging that at as his company, "we don't export jobs to China, we export plastic to China."
This statement is fundamentally untrue.
To fully explain, let me back up a little. Johnson's company, Pacur, was started by his wife's father-in-law, billionaire plastics titan Howard Curler. For several years, Pacur was a "captive supplier" of Bemis, which has has also been controlled by the Curler family since the 1970s. Today, the vast majority of Pacur's business still goes to Bemis, which is still controlled by the Curler family.
Bemis has outsourced thousands of jobs overseas, including three plants in China.
So, in other words, his wife's family started Pacur and set it up as a supplier for Bemis, which they also control. Bemis opens up plants in China and supplier Pacur continues to supply those Chinese with plastic products.
This inconveniant truth came up a few days ago when the Oshkosh Northwestern reported that the Johnson campaign refused to answer the simplest of questions:
The company biography says Pacur today also enjoys a healthy export business, especially from sales in China. Johnson’s campaign declined to say how much of that export business are sales to Bemis, which also has operations in China.
In addition, Johnson worked as an executive for Bowater, which owned Pacur for over ten years and is on Lou Dobb's Exporting America list for exporting jobs overseas. And Johnson is also a major stock holder of Bemis and many other companies well known for sending jobs overseas.
As I've said before, Wisconsin doesn't suffer from an "enthusiasm gap," it suffers from a knowledge gap-- it doesn't know anything about Johnson other than what they've been heard in the media and Johnson's advertising, which has been that Ron Johnson is a self-made man that knows how to create jobs in Wisconsin.
The perfect candidate in a rececession! Only problem is that none of it is true.