Political Capitol

 From state House Speaker Chris Donovan’s, D-Meriden congressional campaign:

MERIDEN, CT – The Bethlehem Democratic Town Committee announced their support for Democratic candidate for the Fifth Congressional District Chris Donovan Wednesday night in Bethlehem.

We’ve written a few stories this week about concerns some lawmakers and members of the public have with the state’s plan to issue tax refunds on JPMorgan Chase debit cards.

Some worry about sharing personal information – such as Social Security Numbers – with Chase.

The state Department of Revenue Services has sought to allay those fears.

And then today colleague Rob Varnon, our business reporter, reported Chase employees have been charged in an alleged scheme to help cash fraudulent refund checks…

The Democrats’ convention is still three months away (May 12)…

… but all three of the party’s major U.S. Senate contenders – even fundraising front-runner U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy – are already looking ahead to an August primary.

From recent interviews with Murphy, ex-Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, and Stamford state Rep. William Tong:

Bysiewicz: “I’ve been about making the process very open and giving anybody who wants to serve the opportunity to take their case to the voters, (who) are best positioned to make this decision … So yes, I plan to be on the primary ballot.”

Tong: “I very much respect our process. I very much respect the delegates and I very much respect our town comittees. And we expect to be strong and competitive in the convention and move on to the primary.”

And finally, Murphy: “We’ll have plenty of debates over the course of the primary.”

Gotta love U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Murphy released his latest fundraising results in mid-January, while his two major competitors – ex-Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and state Rep. William Tong – revealed their smaller hauls this week.

Perhaps recognizing there wasn’t a heck of a lot to say about coming up short, Bysiewicz and Tong kept their press releases brief.

Murphy’s team chose today to not only thump on the campaign’s war chest with a detailed account of why he’s better at raising money, but to illustrate the candidate’s “unmatched fundraising strength” with charts!

UPDATE:

Zing!!! Those scamps with the Tong campaign respond with a cheeky chart of their own.

Democratic President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign today launched a fundraising drive based on comments likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney made last night about turning Obama into a one-termer.

Here’s the president’s tweet…

And here’s Romney turning the tables…

Ahhh Twitter. Helping to lower presidential politics to the level of two high schoolers battling for class president.

Not sure how many Connecticut residents will be heeding Romney’s call. According to Gallup we’re an Obama state.

Connecticut Republicans recently backed Romney in a straw poll of GOP primary contenders.

Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, is not prepared to convene a full informational hearing of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee over this week’s sudden announcement the state has replaced tax refund checks with JPMorgan Chase debit cards.

But Daily, the finance co-chair with Rep. Pat Widlitz, D-Guilford, said the two will schedule a meeting with Department of Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin Sullivan to learn more about the changes.

Daily said she has no interest in jumping on the “hysterical bandwagon” over the debit cards. But, she said, “We have to make sure the public has nothing to lose here.”

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield on Tuesday urged the committees on finance, banks and general law hold an informational session so lawmakers could learn more about the reasons behind the change from paper to plastic and allay any fears.

Daily acknowledged that, like McKinney, she only learned of the debit cards this week when DRS Monday announced the new policy in a pretty bare bones statement to the press.

“That’s never well advised,” Daily said.

She said Sullivan should have at least briefed key lawmakers first.

I’ve heard grumbling from a couple Democratic lawmakers and Democratic operatives up at the capitol that this is a manufactured controversy.

Let me make what seem like pretty obvious points.

1. Fair or not, people don’t generally have good feelings for the tax department and are suspicious tax officials are always out to claim more than government’s fair share of their hard-earned paychecks. And then there’s the fact Connecticut’s tax department spent the fall and early winter having to explain glitches that caused folks to suddenly have more taxes than normal withheld from their paychecks.

2. Fair or not, people also don’t have a high opinion of big banks like JPMorgan Chase after the financial crisis.

3. To issue the cards, DRS has to turn over taxpayers’ Social Security Numbers to Chase. People get a little nervous about that. Lawmakers know this. On Tuesday and Wednesday Attorney General George Jepsen and Senate Democrats, respectively, issued press releases about efforts to better protect constituents’ personal data – including Social Security numbers. And Jepsen advised, “Never provide sensitive information, such as your Social Security Number, unless there is a legitimate purpose, such as for employment or health care reasons.” Nothing in there about handing it over to Chase for a tax refund.

4. Whether it’s the banks’ fault or the customers’ fault, some people have trouble using debit cards and the very term can conjure up visions of complicated contracts and high fees and other headaches.

So when you combine all four of the above – the DRS, a big bank, giving out personal information and debit cards – it’s only natural that, unless properly explained, some taxpayers will have a negative reaction. But some decision-makers in Hartford convinced themselves residents would welcome these changes the way they welcome getting a gift card at Christmas.

Daily agreed that just the words “debit card” and “big banks” raise red flags for some.

“Absolutely,” she said. “There are loads of people in my district who operate mainly on a cash and check basis. So this idea of a debit card doesn’t sound like they’re getting money back. (And) a lot instantly don’t trust Chase.”

Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, and Tom Swan, head of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, rarely agree on policy matters.

But Swan this evening backed up McKinney’s call for legislative Democrats to convene an informational hearing on the Department of Revenue Services’ announcement Monday the agency has replaced tax refund checks with JPMorgan Chase debit cards.

“Why are banks able to profit off people’s refunds?” Swan - no fan of big banking institutions -said.

According to state Treasurer Denise Nappier, the contract with the partnership of Chase and Bridgeport-based People’s United Bank is worth $25,000. There are, however, no fees for using the cards at Chase and People’s ATMs. Fees of $1.50 will be applied at other ATMS after three uses.

Sullivan and Nappier maintain the debit cards are more secure than checks, more convenient and will also cut the state’s administrative costs by an estimated $290,000.

Swan continued, ”This is the type of thing that should be discussed and shared in a public way … Kevin Sullivan should not just be able to go off and do this without any public process.”

McKinney noted DRS didn’t initially explain the bidding procedure Monday and left it to Nappier’s office Tuesday to reveal nine banks showed interest and the contract was worth $25,000.

“It would have been nice if this was released as part of the total rollout Monday,” McKinney said.

Although DRS claims the changeover from paper to plastic tax refunds (direct bank desposits are also still an option) has been in the works for over a year, one person closely involved in tax preparation services knew nothing about it until Monday’s announcement.

“We just heard about it ourselves and we’re putting the word out,” Dan Arnold, state coordinator for the AARP’s tax aid program, told me tonight. “This is the first time we’ve seen this. We just don’t know what the reaction is going to be.”

Here’s our full report on this issue and the calls for a hearing.

State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, raised $160,000 in the last quarter of 2011 and has roughly $300,000 cash-on-hand, according to a statement from his campaign for U.S. Senate.

For those keeping track, ex-Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who also wants the nomination, announced this week that her Senate campaign raised “over $273,000 and has cash on hand of about $890,000.”

And earlier this month U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy announced he had raised $720,000 in the 4th quarter.

Tong’s campaign manager continued to try to use his candidate’s underdog status to his advantage:

“Our campaign is an underdog’s campaign and that is exactly what our state needs right now.  Our strategy isn’t to out raise Washington’s candidate.  We aren’t interested in funding our campaign with Wall Street and Washington PAC money.  Our plan is to have the resources necessary to run a very aggressive ground operation and peak at the right time,” said campaign manager, Marc Bradley.

Bradley doesn’t mention Murphy by name, but the “Wall Street” comment echoes accusations Bysiewicz has been leveling at the perceived frontrunner.

To be fair, I just flipped through Tong’s prior financial disclosures yesterday and there were $1,000 and $2,500 donations from folks who perhaps don’t all work directly on Wall Street, but are employed by major players in the financial services industry in Stamford, New York and elsewhere - UBS, Trilogy Capital, Oak Investment Partners, Goldman, Sachs & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Freepoint Commodities, Aladdin Capital, PSQ Capital, Citigroup and Lubben Capital.