The game plan according to Pagliuca

“We can’t assume because someone came from business and they made some money, that they’re bad,’’ explained Stephen Pagliuca, the venture capitalist turned Democratic candidate for the US Senate. “. . . I’m fighting the stereotype. I’ve probably had to spend far too much money fighting the stereotype.’’

Pagliuca’s fortune - perhaps as much as $400 million - isn’t his biggest problem. The late Edward M. Kennedy, whose Senate seat Pagliuca is trying to win, was a wealthy man. Trying to buy an election isn’t a political mortal sin, either. Kennedys have been known to do that, too.

But how Pagliuca made his money, in venture capital, does give him some explaining to do. It’s a world of hard analysis and return on investment, as warm and fuzzy as a canal stocked with starving alligators.

Personal wealth gives Pagliuca the freedom to attack rivals for taking lobbyist money as he writes checks for the ubiquitous TV ads that are helping to build his name recognition.

Pagliuca’s background gives him a legitimate platform to boast that he understands business and the economy better than his rivals and knows how to create jobs in Massachusetts. But it could also put him on the defensive in a race in which the candidates are trying to outdo one another as ardent disciples of Kennedy-style populism.

Business is also what connects Pagliuca to Republican Mitt Romney, who hired him at Bain Capital and whose campaign he backed when Romney tried to unseat Kennedy in 1994.

The intersection of their careers raises the issue of what happens after venture capital firms like Bain invest in failing companies and start “restructuring’’ them, which sometimes means layoffs.

Asked about the scenario of venture capital investors as job destroyers versus job creators, Pagliuca said: “I think that couldn’t be further from the truth as far as what I’ve done and what Bain has done. That’s maybe the vestiges of an attack ad on the Romney campaign.’’ Arguing that more than 600,000 out of 3.2 million Massachusetts workers can trace their jobs back to venture capital, he calls it “incontrovertible’’ that such investment increases jobs.

Of his own philosophy, he said, “I won’t invest in a company unless I think I can grow it.’’ Indeed, adhering to that principle kept him from pursuing his bid to buy The Boston Globe. “I won’t even kill a fly,’’ said Pagliuca. “I don’t want to touch a business if I think I’m going to have to fire people.’’

But, as Pagliuca also acknowledges, “Things happen. Currency rates change . . . dynamics change.’’

When they do change, Ampad happens.

That story of that Marion, Ind., company - as related by a devastating ad campaign - derailed Romney’s dreams of unseating Kennedy. The ads made the case that Romney profited from disemboweling Ampad, a company in which Bain invested. Laid-off workers and some who lost health and pension benefits were featured in the ads. Some traveled to Massachusetts to personally illustrate their plight.

In an added twist, Tad Devine, who now works as Pagliuca’s media consultant, helped create the Ampad ads for Kennedy.

Pagliuca’s take on those vintage ads relies on his latest business venture, co-owner of the Boston Celtics. “When we won the championship, we lost 16 games but we won 66 games,’’ he said. “Now, you can write an article, in fact you can write 16 articles in a row, about the losses. But we won the championship.’’

Face-to-face, Pagliuca doesn’t come across as haughty or wildly out of touch - just mildly out of touch, as when he mentions that instead of teaching, he ended up at Bain after Harvard Business School because he was looking at what seemed like a large debt at the time - $18,000 or $20,000. To many of Pagliuca’s would-be constituents, $18,000 or $20,000 is still a large debt.

That perspective doesn’t make him a bad person. Neither does his venture capital career. It just makes him a rich guy, who unlike Kennedy, doesn’t intuitively understand that people who lose jobs don’t equate it with blowing a free throw.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.