Thank you Tyson for the help on this.
If anyone else runs in to this issue, what I had to change to get this to work.
* Make sure the map channel for both the Vertex and Export operators is set to 1.
* Mapping mode in the Mapping particles operator needs to be set to "Affect particle mapping overrides"
Note: We only turn the Vertex color operator on when exporting, We leave it off while working so as to be able to see color properly in the viewport.