Georgia Senate candidate David Perdue spent an early part of his career as an outsourcer for a large international company.
Perdue, who often brags of being a “job creator” by touting his record of working with Fortune 500 companies, discussed his work outsourcing in a civil court case several years ago.
During a July 2005 deposition, Perdue spoke about his role in the collapse of North Carolina textile manufacturer Pillowtex Corp., of which he was briefly CEO from 2002-03, according to Politico.
In the deposition transcript he admits, “Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that,” when asked about his “experience with outsourcing.”
He was hired, at least in part, to cut costs for the company by outsourcing manufacturing operations overseas and finding low-cost manufacturing facilities and labor, usually in Asia, the deposition reveals.
Perdue then went on to list his career experience, much of which involved outsourcing for numerous businesses: Kurt Salmon Associates, Gitano and Sara Lee.
“At various positions throughout [Perdue’s] career, he helped his company identify international manufacturing sources, but that had nothing to do with determining how much product the company produced domestically versus internationally,” Derrick Dickey, Perdue’s campaign manager, said in response to the now-public deposition.
Perdue is running against Democrat Michelle Nunn. The Senate seat Perdue and Nunn seek was previously held by Republican Saxby Chambliss, who announced his retirement last January, leaving it open.
A RealClearPolitics average of polls has Perdue ahead of Nunn by just 2.4 points.
Perdue and Nunn have continually traded barbs about jobs and the economy.
