Bysiewicz tries to tie Murphy to Romney’s taxes

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Susan Bysiewicz Monday sought to take advantage of the national controversy surrounding Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s low 15 percent tax rate.

In an email Bysiewicz accused one of her primary opponents, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, of voting in May 2010 against a bill to close the loophole critics say wealthy Americans like Romney use to dodge taxes regular folks pay.

“On May 28, 2010 Chris Murphy was one of only 34 Democrats who voted against a House bill that included an important provision to change the tax treatment of ‘carried interest’ by taxing 75 percent of investment income as ordinary income, and 25 percent as capital gains. It was expected to raise $17 billion in revenue. The AFL-CIO characterized the bill as a significant way to ‘…close tax loopholes and ensure corporate accountability,'” read Bysiewicz’s email.

Bysiewicz continued, “I strongly disagree with Congressman Chris Murphy’s decision to protect the tax loophole for Mitt Romney and Wall Street executives. Instead, we should be looking out for the middle class. That’s why my plan will remove the tax loophole and hold Wall Street accountable for the financial crises they caused that continues to hurt the middle class.”

I asked the campaign for a link to the vote tally and here’s what they sent along.

I reached out to Kenny Curran, Murphy’s campaign manager, for a response. Curran said his man has supported at least three other efforts to close the tax loophole between 2007 and 2009 but the 2010 bill was too expensive.

Here’s the vote tally for one of those bills from December 2009.

“On this particular vote they’re (Bysiewicz’s campaign) talking about, Chris’ vote had nothing to do with his support of carried interest. He definitely supports closing this loophole and has used his voice and vote to do that. Overall this bill added $54 billion to the deficit. Chris just wasn’t comfortable with that,” Curran said. He added, “People in Connecticut know where Chris stands on tax fairness. He’s voted repeatedly to close this tax loophole and to end the unfair Bush tax cuts. That’s why groups that fight for middle class workers here in Connecticut like UAW, CWA, CT Building Trades, CT Firefighters, CEA and the Working Families Party have been quick to support him in this important race.”

It should be noted Murphy wasn’t the only member of the Connecticut delegation to vote no. U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Greenwich also opposed the legislation.

Brian Lockhart