Virg Bernero launches attacks on Rick Snyder's jobs record in Ann Arbor, at Gateway

“Unfortunately that facility wasn’t built in Michigan, it wasn’t even built in America. That plant and those jobs landed in China,” Bernero said.

Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder, left, and Democratic candidate Virg Bernero shake hands prior to their debate at the Detroit Public Television studios in Wixom.

Mandi Wright | Associated Press

During the debate, Discera CEO Bruce Diamond issued a statement through the Snyder campaign, saying Discera recently opened a 300-square-foot “sales and applications office” in Shenzhen, China. The office has three sales employees, one “field applications engineer” and an administrative assistant, Diamond said.

After the debate, Bernero said he felt compelled to target Snyder's involvement with Discera, which Snyder's investment firm Ardesta funded.

Bernero said Discera showed Snyder wasn't committed to creating jobs in Michigan.

"We got that information and frankly it was so troubling, I just felt I had to lead with that," Bernero told reporters. "And I thought he should have chance to answer for it. He’s got to answer for it. He owes the people of Michigan an explanation at a time when people are hurting like they are."

After the debate, Snyder said Discera’s China office was intended to sell products to the Chinese, not create jobs there.

"That’s a case where the mayor had trouble understanding the difference between research-and-development and sales," Snyder said. "Literally it’s a small office with a card table in it to sell to the Chinese. Our research, as I said during the debate, is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We should be proud of that."

Chris Rizik, Snyder’s long-time venture capital partner at Ardesta, told AnnArbor.com in an e-mail tonight that Bernero’s “statement makes no sense.”

“Discera is headquartered in California, and its R&D is headed in Ann Arbor,” Rizik said. “Because they are designing components that will be used by electronics makers, they will likely have customers throughout Asia.”

Snyder said he was “proud of my record as a successful businessman.”

The debate showed that Bernero, who is trailing Snyder by about 20 percentage points according to the latest poll, is committed to a strategy of trying to paint Snyder as a selfish business executive who “shipped jobs overseas.”

Bernero used the platform of the debate to blame Snyder for the demise of computer maker Gateway, where Snyder was an executive from 1991 to 1997 and a board member until 2007.

Gateway grew from fewer than 1,000 employees to more than 10,000 while Snyder was an executive. The company started to outsource jobs as its sales collapsed in the face of intense competition starting in 2001. The number of Gateway employees sunk from more than 20,000 in 2000 to fewer than 2,000 by 2005.

Snyder said tonight accusations that he was responsible for outsourcing at Gateway were “untrue.”

“I think if he says it enough times, it’ll become true," Snyder said. "At Gateway, I’m proud of my record."

Bernero countered: “As far as Gateway, either he lied to the SEC or he’s lying here tonight.”

Craig Ruff, a lecturer at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and senior policy fellow at Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants, said he thought Bernero was relatively effective in his statements about Discera. But that comes with a caveat, he said.

"Even though I’d say that’s effective, most people understand that Michigan is not an island and it does not operate in a business incubator, that we are part and parcel of global commerce," Ruff said. "So I thought Bernero scored points on that front, but I also think that a lot of people who were watching tonight said this is just inevitable."

Ruff said Bernero's attacks fit with a general trend around the country in which business people-turned-political candidates are being criticized for outsourcing jobs.

"There is a protectionist mood among some people who suggest we should close the curtain between any kind of global commerce," Ruff said. "I think most people now understand that cannot be done, that we have to have mobility and flexibility, nimble globalization strategies. It nonetheless does feed a certain frenzy in Michigan, which is pretty peninsular in its thinking, just as it is geographically."

Meanwhile, Bernero also placed a spotlight on Snyder’s involvement with Ann Arbor-based HandyLab, a University of Michigan spinoff medical devices firm that was sold late last year to New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson and Co. for $275 million. Snyder’s venture capital firm Ardesta was an early investor in HandyLab and Snyder himself was chairman of HandyLab when the company was sold, though he has since left the company.

HandyLab’s sale was considered a big win for the Ann Arbor region at the time, and local economic developers expected the company to expand its presence here.

But BD announced last week that it would close HandyLab’s office in Pittsfield Township and shift manufacturing of the firm’s rapid infection-detection device to Maryland. The firm’s 50 employees will be transferred or laid off.

Bernero tonight criticized Snyder for the demise of HandyLab.

“I don’t know how much of that you pocketed from that personally,” Bernero said. In Lansing, “I’m fighting and winning. He’s fighting for his own pocketbook.”

Snyder argued that HandyLab’s success in Pittsfield Township benefited its employees. In startup companies, individual employees often own private stock and can profit personally when the companies are sold.

“Many, many of the employees shared in that — they had stock ownership, just like I had stock ownership in Gateway,” Snyder said. “Now they’re going off to create new companies. Many of the people had already left and they’re being serial entrepreneurs in other places.”

Snyder sought to use his success with Ann Arbor-based software firm HealthMedia as an example of his commitment to creating jobs in Michigan. HealthMedia, another U-M startup Snyder funded, was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2008 and now employs some 200 workers and contractors in Ann Arbor.

In its early days, HealthMedia hit a rough patch and ran out of money, prompting Snyder and co-founder Victor Strecher to write personal checks to pay the salaries of HealthMedia's 50 employees at the time.