Influence

Storks Welcome The End Of The Session

2007-08-07T14:18:00.000-04:00

Naturally, lobbyists would like to control as much of the legislative process as possible for their clients.

They want to be a part of every meeting. They want to speak with every legislator they can, as many times as they can. And they try to ensure that the wording of every bill, press release and news report will be exactly to their clients’ liking.

But when it comes to balancing family life with professional life, lobbyists have all the same difficulties managing time home with their children with their hours at work. Right?

Well, mostly. As hard-working as lobbyists are, they certainly have trouble scheduling teacher meetings and trips to the park around committee meetings and public hearings.

Working from home is hardly an option when one needs to look a committee chair in the eye and explain why a bill desperately needs to be rewritten.

But the political process is a seasonal one, with the bulk of the work in late spring and early summer. So it should be no surprise that top female lobbyists do their best to plan their pregnancies around their work.

Pregnant Pauses
One of the best pregnancy planners may be Kate Robinson, lobbyist for Betty Gallo & Co., a firm largely serving nonprofits.

Robinson has impeccable timing. Her first child, 5, was born just two days before the end of the 2002 session. Her second, 2, was born a month after the 2005 session closed.

“As much as people can’t control for their pregnancies, they try to,” Robinson said.

Otherwise, she points out, months of work could be put at risk. Even the two days she missed in 2002 caused her to miss the vote on a package of same-sex rights legislation that she had spent the year working on. Now, when there are public hearings to be signed up for on early mornings (before Robinson’s daycare opens) her 5-year-old happily comes along to tour the Capitol.

“I think there is some purposeful planning that goes on. But sometimes life is inconvenient, and you make do,” she said.

Another excellent planner would be Irene A. Rodrigues, of the law firm Robinson and Cole, who has twice been one of the pregnant ladies working up at the State Capitol, once as a staffer and once as a lobbyist, as her 6-year-old was born in September and her 2-year-old came in August.

“You’ll see, if go into the cafeteria in the legislative office building later in the session, that there are a lot of pregnant women,” Rodrigues explained.

Not only were her children both born shortly after sessions ended, but both came in campaign years, which helped get Rodrigues out of campaigning when she worked for the Senate Democrats.

“It got me a buyout,” she says happily.

Summer Babies
There has been more timely success this year – though it can be difficult getting in touch with the mothers. Try calling lobbyists Louise DiCocco-Beauton of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, or Christine Cappiello of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and it’s voicemail only. They are on maternity leave. Perfect timing.

But ultimately, Mother Nature makes these decisions, even for über-planned lobbyist moms, and not everyone can be so lucky.

“We just got what we got. They came when they came,” says Janemarie W. Murphy of Murtha Cullina.

Murphy refers to her 18-month-old twins, born in the winter of 2005, causing her to miss the entire legislative session that year.

Murphy said her firm was tremendously supportive and that after explaining the situation to each of her clients, they understood completely. It wasn’t ideal, maybe, but not everything can be planned. But that doesn’t mean anyone is about to stop trying.

“I don’t know a lot of colleagues who try to have a baby during the middle of the session,” Murphy said.

“It’s not often you see a baby born in March.”

They Came Out Swinging, But Unions Struck Out

2007-08-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

They went in with such high hopes. And maybe they were too hopeful, but no one thought it would end up like this.

Labor unions looked at the 2007 legislative session as a grand opportunity. Democrats, historically the favored party of unions, had won a large enough majority to override any veto by the governor.

Health insurance had just been mandated for all citizens in neighboring Massachusetts – leading to fresh aspirations that a new government plan could happen here also.

And a bevy of ideas for expanding workers compensation poured quickly into the Labor and Public Employees Committee and flew out the other end with flying colors.

Back then, things were looking good for the organized labor. But now that the legislature’s work is all but done for the summer, we know better: It was a trying session for the unions.

The Democrats, all 45 in the House and 24 in the Senate, opted not to override any vetoes of the popular governor. But on labor’s most important issues, it didn’t even come to that. The idea to provide affordable health care to every citizen in the state fell below education and energy prices as a priority, and of close to 20 ideas for improving workers compensation benefits, almost none passed.

Moving Targets
Does this add up to an erosion of respect for the unions at the State Capitol?

Lori J. Pelletier, who handles much of the lobbying for Connecticut AFL-CIO’s, doesn’t think so. She thinks most legislators want to do something to improve the stakes for workers, but aren’t sure of the best way to go about it.

“Many legislators have gotten significantly more informed, which is an accomplishment,” she said.

That isn’t to say Pelletier is pleased with how the session played out. She said perception of a single-payer healthcare system was tainted by the insurance industry, which howled about possible job losses, and the media, which was happy to explain the price tag of such a plan, but – in her view – failed to point out the savings that could be had.

“As much as I thought we moved the ball down the field, I think the goal posts were moved beforehand,” she said.

Others took similar views.

“I think you can look at health care as a mixed bag,” said Jennifer Berigan, who lobbies on behalf Municipal Employees Union Independent.

“I think the issue was addressed. It was placed on the agenda, and that’s a positive. Did everyone get what they wanted? No. But it’s a complex issue.”

There was little success on workers compensation proposals either, which were defeated so soundly that Connecticut Business & Industry Association lobbyist Joseph Brennan applauded the way “the Speaker reached out to our manufacturing and small business groups, and listened to their concerns,” in his write-up of the session.

An effort to secure compensation to treat scars that aren’t visible when one is clothed, for instance, failed despite stories like that of a waitress whose body was badly burned when a pot of hot coffee was dumped down her uniform, and a corrections officer who was bit on the arm by an inmate.

“We did not go as far as we thought we were going to on disfigurement,” Pelletier acknowledged.

Last Gasp
There is a glimmer of hope for something to be salvaged. One of the only pieces of legislation that the General Assembly may still address is contracting reform, which has been a serious point of contention between the governor and Democrats in the past, but on which a compromise may have been struck this year.

Getting that passed has been a priority for Berigan’s municipal workers, and she’s still holding out hope.

“It’s our understanding that there is still a chance,” she said last week.

Either way, it will be a long wait for workers until next session. You can only watch Michael Moore’s “Sicko” so many times.

Most PAC Funds Dry Up, But Law Firm Looks To Cities

2007-07-23T13:01:00.000-04:00

As the plotters of campaign finance reform hoped, music from all the fundraising parties that used to ring around town in the weeks following each legislative session has been quieted.

Lobbyists and association directors this time of year are used to getting pretty envelopes in the mail asking if they would like to attend one dinner party or another, pay a fee of a few hundred dollars and also buy an advertisement in the event pamphlet.

But now that lobbyists may not participate in fundraising for candidates of state offices, the parties have stopped.

“I haven’t had any invitations or solicitations because of the new requirements. That’s all dried up,” said Robert A. Kehmna, president of the Insurance Association of Connecticut.

Normally at this time of year, he recalls, “there would have been fundraising invitations for candidates, caucuses and committees.” Two years ago at this time, for instance, the IAC’s political action committee had $17,590 on hand and was fresh off giving contributions to the House Democrats, the Senate Republicans and a number of individual candidates.

Without the parties, Kehmna said the committee would remain closed, barring a change to the new rules by the courts or the state.

“We figured, given the various unknowns, we’ll just shut it down,” he said.

The trucking lobby closed its committee two months ago. Michael J. Riley, president of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut, said the group also cut its advertising budget from $30,000 for this year to $3,000 for 2008, given the paucity of event pamphlets in which to advertise.

“We’re out of that business now,” he said.

Cash Flow
Jeffery B. Garfield, executive director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, said there was little doubt that the new rules were the cause for the rash of terminated committees. As of July 17, there were 514 PACs, down from over 700 in December.

“I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that lobbyists and contractors are no longer allowed to contribute to the candidates and committees,” he said.

So if business groups can no longer sway state candidates through campaign donations, where is all the money going?

Well, when there’s only a little money left over it sometimes goes to charity. The IAC emptied its account by giving $404.52 to House of Bread, in Hartford, while Riley’s truckers gave its last $31.63 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Connecticut.

But it also might be headed to one of the only remaining places where lobbyists’ dollars can be used in campaigns: municipal elections.

Consider the Robinson & Cole political action committee, run by one of the state’s strongest lobbying units. Robinson & Cole has decided to keep its PAC despite the fact that two of its top competitors, Gaffney, Bennett and Associates, of New Britain, and Sullivan & LeShane, of Hartford, both terminated theirs and emptied their accounts.

In doing so, it indicated to the state that it would be contributing to municipal elections only.

Not only is Robinson and Cole’s committee still alive, it is still humming. It raised $3,614 in the first quarter of 2007, according to filings with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, doing so through payroll deductions from 34 of the firm’s lawyers.

Could the strategy be to pepper the state municipal elections with small contributions, rather than write big checks to the Senate and House committees, the way they would before the end of fundraising parties?

Commitment To Hartford
It’s probably too early in the campaign season to tell, and S. Frank D’Ercole, treasurer of the Robinson & Cole committee, declined to comment when reached on the phone.

But his committee has already made a start in spending its new money locally. On March 21 the committee wrote a check for $500 to something called “Perez for Mayor 2007.”

If other municipal candidates are smart, they will follow Eddie’s lead and try to get the remaining committees to get back into the fundraising game, at least before the campaign finance reformers take aim at shutting down the local parties, too.

Fonfara Plays Dangerous Political Game To Boost His Company

2007-07-16T10:56:00.000-04:00

Weeks ago it was suggested in this space that the hiring of Sullivan & LeShane lobbyist Jude Malone by state Sen. John W. Fonfara was a boost to the credibility and caché of the firm.

Which it was, but that wasn’t the whole story. It turns out that Sullivan & LeShane isn’t the only firm enjoying a shared employee with the Hartford’s Democratic senator and his billboard company, Face Value.

With Norwich-native Malone representing him, in April Fonfara secured a contract with that city to refurbish and sell advertising on four billboards.

Meanwhile, back at the Capitol, Sullivan & LeShane was representing the interests of its many lobbying clients. Among them was NRG Energy, a New Jersey company with ownership in 47 power plants around the world. NRG wanted to make sure Connecticut would keep its electricity market open enough for wholesalers like itself, so no doubt the supplier was pleased to see Fonfara – a main author of the state’s energy deregulation – so comfortable with its lobbying team that he actually hired one of the members himself.

And no doubt the company was further pleased when Fonfara successfully argued that a market for electricity generators ought to remain.

But as it turns out, Sullivan & LeShane’s clients aren’t the only ones who can beam with approval that they and Fonfara share a business partner, as became clear when the senator made a bid for a billboard project in East Hartford last week.

At a public hearing before the town council July 10, Fonfara unveiled a plan to create three new tri-vision or electronic billboards along I-84 in prime territory near Rentschler Field, which he would operate for the next 40 years.

To meet a town ordinance aimed at reducing the number of billboards, Fonfara proposed to acquire and take down seven other billboards. The town council could vote as early as August 7.

In pursuing the contract, Fonfara used the same model he had in Norwich: choose a former politician with strong local ties to represent him. For the East Hartford deal, Fonfara hired none other than Robert M. DeCrescenzo, mayor of East Hartford from 1993 to 1997 and currently a member of the government affairs unit at the Hartford law firm Updike, Kelly & Spellacy.

Wide Power
If the first two stops are any indication, Fonfara looks around the state for good billboard space and, upon finding some, uses his standing in the legislature to hire a political operative with enough clout in that community to help complete the deal.

Other billboard companies are concerned by the political power Face Value can employ, as evidenced by competitor Charles Ghione, owner of NextMedia Outdoor Advertising Co., who chalked up Fonfara’s deal in Norwich to “influence and backroom politicking.”

Competitors should always be wary. But shouldn’t the rest of us be worried about the damage Fonfara’s business model could have on the legislation he writes?

With campaign finance reform, the legislature and Gov. M. Jodi Rell acknowledged that money from lobbyists and their clients was marring the policymaking and election process.

Thanks to the law’s passage, lobbyists and their immediate families may not make donations to candidates for state office. Lobbyists are not even allowed to advise their clients as to which candidates to write checks for.

They also may not be solicited by legislators for causes related to their private professions, as we discovered with Speaker James A. Amann’s job raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Considering all these efforts at separating policymakers from lobbyists, aren’t Fonfara’s hiring practices a step in the wrong direction? The expectation that, after they help drive Fonfara’s business and personal income, Malone and DeCrescenzo’s clients will receive no special favors whatsoever at the Capitol doesn’t seem to hold water.

Fonfara and DeCrescenzo declined to return phone messages on the issue.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Non-Compete Bill Found Itself Anchored Down

2007-07-10T15:26:00.000-04:00

ESPN would have preferred to stay about as far from the issue as Barry Bonds has from baseball’s steroids investigation.

But it didn’t get its wish.

As Bonds has for months, ESPN made unsavory local headlines through the winter and into the spring. This despite the fact that it was clear — in the company’s case — that by all accounts it had done nothing wrong.

The Bristol-based sports megalith’s contract with New York City-based Guardsmark security company ran out in December and, after putting the contract up for bid, ESPN signed a new deal with Securitas Security Services, of New Jersey.

When Guardsmark laid off about 40 security personnel but did not permit them to be hired by Securitas — citing a contract clause forbidding workers to go to a local competitor — suddenly Richard Blumenthal’s sirens were blaring.

As the Attorney General made trips to the state Capitol to testify, the bad-looking publicity kept coming. Headlines like “ESPN Guards Can’t Stay” and “Guards Let Down” made it seem like ESPN was in some sort of labor tug-of-war.

The adage about any publicity being good publicity was not holding true. As spokesman Michael Soltys explained, the company was a victim of happenstance.

“It was an issue between Guardsmark and Securitas, that happened to be at ESPN. It could have been anywhere,” he said.

As legislation barring non-compete clauses for security guards began to move, the best thing, it seemed, was not to take a position.

Bill Changes Face
Then happenstance struck again. Channel 3 anchor Al Terzi heard about the legislation and, having been barred from changing television jobs in 1994, jumped in to have broadcasters exempted in the bill as well. Legislators happily tacked them on.

Though they are common practice in many industries, non-compete clauses (usually lasting six months or a year) are more being more frequently viewed as unenforceable in various states.

Still, they are increasingly being used by software companies and others to prevent secrets from being given to competitors when programmers switch jobs. This has some programmers as angry as Terzi, as evidenced by cases like when Montreal’s Ubisoft Entertainment sued Electronic Arts Inc., of Redwood, Calif., for hiring away their video game techies.

But besides the non-compete clauses, the two industries included in the Connecticut bill, having come from two completely unrelated sources, had no relation to one another — except a connection to ESPN.

Suddenly ESPN, which employs over 200 broadcasters, was roped back into the mess.

It is the company’s standard procedure, according to Soltys, to include first negotiation/first refusal clauses in broadcasters’ contracts. When looking for his next deal, for instance, anchor Dan Patrick would need to consider ESPN first and even if he then decided to sign with, say, Fox Sports, ESPN would be given the chance to match the offer and thereby retain him.

The resulting bill, after Terzi had his say, would have made those clauses illegal in the broadcasting world.

So Levin, Powers, Brennan & Shea, ESPN’s lobbying firm jumped onto the playing field, eventually getting the state House to add an amendment specifically excluding cable broadcast employees. It was aided by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association which, at the behest of business owners in many other industries, wanted to limit restrictions on non-compete clauses as much as possible.

Soltys said that when the bill (with which it previously wanted nothing to do) began reflecting Terzi’s wishes, the company wanted to make sure it had a chance to weigh in on “the broadcasters’ part of it,” though in reality the broadcasters part was nearly identical to the security guards part.

Thus, beginning in October, the Securitas guards manning parking lots and vestibules in Bristol for hourly wages will have employment rights that the multi-million dollar broadcasting crew it protects does not.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Survey Says....

2007-07-02T11:09:00.000-04:00

It is not all that difficult for an elected official to say “no” to lobbyists of unpopular causes. Some legislators aren’t afraid to curse them out in the hallway and explain what, um, schmucks they are. Especially if they don’t represent campaign contributors.

But declining is harder when a legislator is met by a supporter of an idea that’s popular with the public, even if the idea isn’t practical.

That’s where public opinion polling comes into play. Demonstrating that a group of legislators is at odds with the public can add serious political pressure, even if the public has incredibly foolish views or doesn’t really care.

And here’s the best part: Polling can make the public appear to like or dislike just about anything.

By tactfully wording questions, choosing respondents and packaging results, pollsters can make the public appear supportive of whatever they are pushing, particularly as most legislators don’t have time to comb through research methodology (which usually isn’t included in survey results, anyway).

So it should be no surprise that larger lobbying firms have not only added public relations units, but many of them contract with large polling companies in Washington, D.C. or New York – or, increasingly, with Quinnipiac University in Hamden, which has built a large polling organization and reputation.

Insuring Opinion
Associations are increasingly turning to polling, too. Take the group “Insure Connecticut’s Future,” formed last year by insurance companies grown tired of taxes and regulation.

Apparently, legislators didn’t realize that the average Connecticut resident walks around thinking how important the insurance industry is to his own well-being. A poll was in order.

But first, to pump up the results, the insurers hired the Glastonbury firm Cronin & Co. to buy radio and print advertisements pointing out that taxes paid by insurers and their employees help in “improving roads, schools, hospitals, libraries and public safety.”

On the group’s Web site it created three animated stories of how insurance improves our lives. Sam, an asthmatic Little Leaguer, is the third best batter on his team, the narrator says, “all thanks” to a health program “funded by a Connecticut insurance company.” Now Sam can play basketball at the “insurance-supported Boys & Girls Club near his house, the house his mom bought through a home ownership program developed with an insurance foundation grant.”

Then, to show how much residents really value the insurance industry (or, maybe, how well its ads worked) the group surveyed 800 residents and found that 93 percent believe the insurance industry plays an important role in the state’s economy.

Among questions that weren’t asked: “Are you happy with how much you pay for health insurance in light of the $30.86 million in total compensation that Aetna CEO Ronald A. Williams took home last year?”

All sides play the polling game, of course. Connecticut Voices for Children, a backer of expanding health care, released poll results in March commissioned by the New England Alliance of Children’s Health, which pushes for more health care across the region. Conducted by Lake Research Partners, a liberal D.C. polling firm funded by labor unions, those results showed that 89 percent of 400 Connecticut voters wanted health care for all children.

Just Cause
Just as with the insurers, the health care advocates had little doubt when beginning their poll that the results would help their cause. Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with reasons for spending more on children’s insurance, such as “All children should have the health care they need to grow and learn.” About 96 percent at least somewhat agreed, but who wouldn’t?

The survey did probe further, asking if each American should be willing to pay $28 per year to cut the number of uninsured children in half. Most respondents agreed.

But it is too bad the group didn’t survey babies, children and the indigent, because all Americans seem to be included in the $28-per-American estimate, and it’s a good bet we won’t see toddlers filling out I.R.S. forms come April. It’s also unlikely the group would find agreement on the cost it suggests, $8 billion per year, among conservative taxpayers groups.

Did they survey the Yankee Institute?

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Ethics Office Takes A Wrong Turn On Lobby Data

2007-06-19T16:03:00.000-04:00

There’s no glory in piling on someone who has already been laid flat on the mat, but there’s good reason to excoriate Benjamin Bycel, who heads the office of state ethics as of this writing (but may not as of your reading).

And it has nothing to do with his Vermont license plates.

Bycel, who has reportedly been recommended the boot by five members of his staff, clearly has some management issues, which could be the cause of his ouster.

That news came last Monday, the very day—in a strange twist—that his office finally unveiled on its Web site three years’ worth of previously unreleased data on the lobbying industry.

This should have provided a spot of sun during an otherwise stormy week. Instead it should do the opposite, since the newly posted information, long overdue, is nearly impossible to use. Insinuations that Bycel is hard to work for are one thing; failing to perform a key mandate of the office is far worse.

Bycel’s office is charged with enforcing lobbying rules. The state, through new rules passed in the “Let’s Clean Up Our Corrupt Government” year of 2005, requires that it collect client and compensation data from everyone providing lobbying services for $2,000 or more per year, and that it provide that information to the public.

The office has been woefully slow at this, as it is implementing an entire new data system and painstakingly moving the entire registration process onto its Web site. This has left long gaps in the record on lobbyists. Until last Monday, for instance, the newest available information on lobbyists’ earnings was from the 2004 session.

Many Uses
Under the old system, whatever its faults, one could search by lobbyist or by client. Enter “General Motors” and one got a handy list of who is lobbying for the carmaker—information that could potentially connect to how, say, an auto regulation bill died.

Lobbyists themselves probably used the system as much as anyone; it was key to seeing which competitor signed what client and how much they were being paid. It was also a tool that allowed businesses and advocates who hire lobbyists to see if they were being given competitive rates, and if the firms they hire have hidden conflicts of interest.

Most importantly, though, it was a tool for the public to see how money affects the political process.

Concerns that the data had fallen completely out of date were assuaged by promises that the new system would be excellent.

Now it’s clear, however, that all the promises were empty. The office’s new computer system seems to be good at only one thing: producing gargantuan PDF files, which, though termed ‘portable document format,’ we all know to be static and unmaleable.

Moreover, the site has no search function. Want to know who buried some dumpster regulation for, say, a Danbury trash hauling firm, and how much they were paid? Click on “Lobbyist List” for the year. Out comes a 600-page PDF.

To see compensation, you will get another 306-page PDF. Not sure of the company’s name? Too bad.

Roadblock
Users will also notice that obtaining each massive, unwieldy document requires typing in a verification code, much like the sort used for online purchases. The office says this is to prevent “misuse by unscrupulous data-miners who run scripts that acquire data from these reports” or “malicious hackers who wish to attack our servers.”

But of the thousands of public documents posted by the state or country on the Internet, good luck finding any other with access that burdens users this way. Even the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t have anything like that. Neither does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; with the FDIC, it’s just jump on and “acquire data” all you want.

The office says it plans to reintroduce data and search functions shortly, but by then another session of the General Assembly will have closed without the public knowing who is spending what to quietly fashion proposed legislation as they see fit. Meanwhile, the rest of us are waiting for the PDFs to download. Whether or not this is related to Bycel’s napping is unclear. But somebody is certainly sleeping on the job.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Lobbying With Energy

2007-06-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

The state’s new energy law is the result of hundreds of hours of hashing and rehashing, drafting and redrafting. It is the work of long debate and compromise.

It is also the result of millions of dollars of spending by electricity generators, distributors, buyers and sellers, all hoping the state will bend the electricity market in a way that benefits them best.

Those who earn their living in the world of electricity could see this fight coming from a mile away since previous legislation that opened up the market for buying and selling electricity — intended to lower prices dramatically — did exactly the opposite. Everyone knew something needed to be done to fix the mess, and they began gearing up for it well in advance.

And maybe nobody can gear up for a pricey fight like energy companies.

Northeast Utilities, the parent company of Connecticut Light & Power (which distributes power to most of the state), spent an incredible amount of money gearing up for this debate. Last year alone, the company spent $2.7 million lobbying the state according to filings with the Office of State Ethics, by far the most. (In a distant second place came the Connecticut Hospital Association, which spent $342,061, or about one-eighth as much.)

It’s difficult to convey how large a number NU’s spending really was, particularly for a part-time legislature in a small state, but here goes: NU’s spending represented 10.2 percent of the total spending by all other lobbying clients combined. And that was during a year when the legislature had a short session.

This was a about a fourfold increase over the previous year, when NU spent about $660,000. Clearly the issue was “on their radar screen” as people like to say.

Not all of the spending is on one bill of course, since NU has an interest in a bevy of legislative areas including taxes, the environment, transportation and much more, and the company has a lineup of lobbyists to meet all their needs. Six company employees spend time lobbying. It additionally has about $459,000 annually in contracts with four different outside firms: Gaffney, Bennett & Assoc., Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, DeFilippis Assoc. and Malloy & Assoc.

The Play’s The Thing

Why did NU up their spending so dramatically? Well, although they spent the most, they weren’t the only ones opting to spend more. And there are a lot more players on the other team.

Deregulating the electricity market, which the state initiated in 1998, though failing to lower prices, did bring in electricity generators and dealers trying to sell electricity.

Once they sold some, they wanted the market to remain open, and it shows.

Baltimore-based Constellation NewEnergy, which has made a number of the biggest commercial electricity sales in the state, spent less than $40,000 lobbying in 2005. But when the debate over the market began they responded by nearly doubling that, spending $62,000 in 2006 and hitting a a similar pace in 2007.

Dominion, one of the nation’s largest producers of energy, upped its spending in Connecticut by more than $20,000 in 2006, to about $205,000. Same thing for another major national electricity producer, PSEG Power, which spent only $106,000 in 2005 and then pushed that up 75 percent, to about $180,000 in 2006.

Not only that, but new clients jumped in to put down their first lobbying dollars in the state. The New England Power Generators Association, which has a mission of sustaining exactly such markets, spent nothing in 2005 but $8,200 last year and $6,600 so far this year. Noble Environmental Power, a wind power firm that is majority-owned by J.P. Morgan Partners and designed to profit off of new laws encouraging renewable energy, spent its first $40,000 this year. And more to come.

Whose money went the furthest? Like everything else in the 165-page energy bill, the answers aren’t in black and white. But Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating have not been allowed back into the generation business, which means outside producers and dealers still have a market here.

“We still believe that we should have the ability to go directly to generators and eliminate the middle man,” laments Mitch Goss, Connecticut spokesman for NU.

Perhaps he can take solace in the fact that although his company spent close to $3 million in 2006 toward a bill it doesn’t love, it earned $1.1 billion overall, so it can always spend more next time around.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

As Session Ends, Lobbyists Report Raking In Millions

2007-06-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

There is still a lot to be decided between now and midnight on Wednesday, when the gavel automatically comes down on the General Assembly session at the state Capitol.

The lobbyists have been running grooves in the halls of the Capitol for months, never more feverishly than now. Yet with so much left to be decided many of them are still unsure whether all the asking, pleading and, yes, begging for votes has paid off for their clients.

At least they know how much cash they’re raking in, though. And now, finally, so will everyone else.

According to filing data obtained by the Hartford Business Journal, $11.1 million has been paid to lobbyists in 2007, through May 23. The Office of State Ethics plans to put the data on the Internet June 8.

Considering that many payments arrive near the end of one month or the beginning of the next, that still puts the industry about on pace with the two previous years, as lobbyists took in $26.7 million last year and $29.1 million in 2005.

Data on what’s inside all those black leather briefcases is long overdue. Though state law requires that lobbyists report their compensation to the state and that the information be made public, data for 2005, 2006 and 2007 hasn’t been available because of restructuring of the Ethics office. In terms of who is making what and who is paying what, the record after 2004 was blank.

Not anymore. Critical areas of state policy may still be up in the air, but here is who is pocketing the money being poured into the process and the clients who are holding the checkbooks.

Gaffney Wins
In terms of lucrative lobbying, the conversation still starts with New Britain-based Gaffney, Bennett & Assoc., whose dominance in the market remains. In each year from 2000 to 2004, the firm brought in between $4.0 and $4.5 million, and it is on about the same pace this year, having been paid about $1.3 million thus far.

The next three spots are also the same from 2004, with Robinson & Cole ($627,686), Sullivan & LeShane ($570,079) and Levin, Powers, Brennan & Shea ($510,545) the others over a half million this year to date.

If the firms were publicly traded, a stock one might like to have is that of Rome Smith & Assoc., in fifth place with $438,601 this year, after taking only about $556,264 for all of 2004.

Founded by former Senate Republican Majority Leader Lew Rome and former Democratic Rep. Pete Smith, the firm represents a handful of big reliables, like Pfizer at $70,000 per year and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority at $12,000 per month, as well as earning a big chunk of money — $61,425 per year — from the Connecticut Association of Realtors. But it reports payments from 26 total clients in all, many of which will be worth at least $10,000 for the year.

Another firm that’s been bulking up is Halloran & Sage, which never ranked in the top 10 from 1999 to 2004, but which pulled in $285,760 already this year, putting it in the seventh pole position. Part of a 72-year-old law firm based in Hartford, the lobbying unit was buoyed by $26,076 for its difficult work pushing the Broadwater liquid natural gas project. It also capitalized on the debate over health care by cornering the market on specialty medical groups such as eye physicians, dentists, orthopedists, dermatologists and the state Ear Nose and Throat Society.

Falling Behind
While Roy & Leroy ($380,743) and Murtha Cullina ($345,033) are holding steady so far, others haven’t been. Hughes & Cronin, which banked $794,354 in 2004, has more than two dozen clients now but only $278,361 to show for them. Some of them might be more trouble than they are worth. Feld Entertainment, the parent of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Baily Circus — which has been defending its elephant handling tactics — is scheduled to pay only $17,000 for the year, which might look like a bargain if it comes out unscathed.

Updike, Kelly & Spellacy may have fallen out of the top tier. Though the firm still boasts big checks from Northeast Utilities and Diageo (global seller of Smirnoff, Guinness, etc.), it took in $706,611 in 2004, well beyond the pace set by the $154,651 it has amassed to date. It had 27 clients in 2004; it has payments from 14 this year.

Whether growing or shrinking, the bad news for all the firms is that gross spending on lobbying, as campaign finance reform arrived, has been essentially flat for the last three years.

The good news is that at the end of every session, there are clients who are unhappy with the outcome and looking to pay for a better one next time around.

Jonathan O'Connell is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.

Retailers Rout Bankers In Fraud Liability Fight

2007-06-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

If you shop at T.J. Maxx or Marshalls department stores frequently, you might remember where you were when you heard the news on Jan. 17.

That’s the day TJX Cos., the Framingham, Mass.-based owner of 2,500 retail stores including the two above, announced that its computer system had breached large amounts of customer data.

More than three months later, the company revealed that the number of credit and debit cards that had been stolen was, um, you know, an itty-bitty 45.7 million.

The resulting rush of anger didn’t come just from shoppers but from banks and credit unions, many of which have each reissued thousands of debit and credit cards at their own expense.

The hit was particularly bad for some smaller institutions, which generally lack sophisticated theft detection software. So many community banks and smaller credit unions simply reissued cards for all of the customers whose data was at risk, rather than just monitoring the affected accounts.

Dennis Cardello, president of the Collinsville Savings Society, has joined the bankers associations of both Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as the Credit Union League of Connecticut, in suing TJX.

“I think it’s hurt the entire financial industry and it’s time to take a stand,” he said in an interview.

And it’s not just a monetary issue. As Rheo Brouillard, president of the Savings Institute Bank and Trust in Willimantic, told the Banks Committee in February: “It is our reputation that is tarnished, because we have to notify our customer, and they often associate that notification with an admission that we are somehow responsible.”

So banks came to the state legislature out for revenge. They wanted the retailers to pay. Literally.

Payment Plan
The bill proposed by the banks, and pushed by Connecticut Bankers Association lobbyist Thomas S. Mongellow and Fritz Conway of Gaffney, Bennett and Assoc., would have made retailers that lose customer data liable to banks for the cost of canceling and reissuing cards; closing and opening accounts; refunds to customers for stolen funds; and the cost of providing assistance to customers to mitigate their inconvenience. They wanted retailers to be left holding the entire bag.

The chairs of the Banks Committee seemed primed for action. Both considered –- and still find — TJX at fault for losing customer data.

“I still blame TJX. They should be blamed, they should be sued, they should be fined,” said state Sen. Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), in an interview.

But on the other side was Timothy G. Phelan, president of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, along with the team at Murtha Cullina, the association’s contract lobbyists.
Phelan began suggesting that the real bad guys in the TJX case were the hackers.

“TJX was a victim of a crime,” Phelan says. Not only that, he argues, but retailers that accept credit and debit card payments are at the whim of a system put in place by Visa and Mastercard, which are owned and implemented by banks. They were doubly victims.“We haven’t come to the legislature and said, ‘Give us relief from the Visa-Mastercard issue,’” even though the financial institutions are the ones that created it, Phelan said.

After Phelan brought the ‘We’re a Victim’ pitch around to senators for a few weeks, the careless, irresponsible discount retailer didn’t look so bad.

It’s a case study in the work that many corporate and industry groups do each session: madly scour proposed legislation and –- upon finding something injurious –- fight like heck to kill it.

On May 16, Sen. Duff did just that, concerned that he could end up putting mom-and-pop shops at risk because many of them use third-party companies to process credit purchases. If those processors got hacked, he didn’t want the sandwich shop around the corner being forced under amid payments to banks.

“I really wanted to do something on this, but in the end we couldn’t put something together,” Duff said.

The other chair, Rep. Ryan Barry (D-Manchester), still supports the idea, but would have to find a way to revive it in the House.

“They worked the bill very hard,” Rep. Barry said of the retailers. After he’d heard of Sen. Duff’s decision, he gave Phelan his due.

“I went by to Tim and I said, ‘Congratulations.’”

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Fonfara's Lobbyist Choice Gives Nod To Sullivan & LeShane

2007-05-21T16:43:00.000-04:00

Any lobbyist will attest to the fact that the business is all about relationships. That’s what lobbying firms are selling when they bid for contracts — relationships with legislators, with their staffers or with employees of state agencies.

And more often than in perhaps any other industry, the relationships lobbyists sell are personal ones, sometimes going back years. To a lobbying firm, such connections are incredibly valuable because they are so difficult for a competitor to manufacture or replicate.

Which is why when a member of the General Assembly privately hires a well-known Capitol lobbyist, it should leave other lobbyists shaking their heads. It’s not a good sign. If a senator trusts a member of the lobbying community enough to actually hire her himself, it’s a pretty sure bet he trusts her enough to listen to her views on pending legislation.

Like every other member of the General Assembly, State Sen. John W. Fonfara (D-Hartford) has every right to earn a living outside of the Capitol.

He has done so the old fashioned way, founding his own company, a billboard advertising firm called Face Value, from his home in Hartford in November 2005.

Last month, Fonfara won a contract with the city of Norwich to refurbish and sell advertising on four city billboards.

To assist his company in scoring the contract, Fonfara hired Jude Malone, of the Hartford lobbying firm Sullivan & LeShane.

That his company won the contract is only one sign that Fonfara made a smart hire. Besides being a native of Norwich, Malone has helped drive local Democratic candidates into the mayor’s office, city council and state legislature. She knows her way around town.

She’s also been lobbying at the state Capitol, by her own memory, for 17 years. In discussing her client, Fonfara, Malone doubted the relationship would have any effect on Fonfara’s work at the Capitol. She attested to the senator’s high standard of ethics, saying he drew a clear line between his work as a businessman and his service to the state.

Unique Situation
She pointed out that the contract was small and only for municipal work; it’s not as though Fonfara was hiring her to work on his behalf in the halls of the General Assembly.

Fonfara is not being accused of any sort of impropriety. Many state legislators work for companies that employ lobbyists. Some, like House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero, a partner at the Hartford law firm of Brown Rudnick, have discussed at length with state officials the steps needed to avoid ethical violations.

But the Hartford senator’s situation distinguishes itself because he personally decided which of the many influencers he sees every day to hire. It’s possible that other companies with employees serving in the legislature ask the advice of those employees when hiring lobbyists. Perhaps the powers that be at Northeast Utilities, for instance, ask state Sen. John A. Kissel (R-Enfield) what he thinks of Jay Malcynsky and Fritz Conway when it comes time to extend the company’s contract with Gaffney Bennett & Assoc., being that Kissel is an attorney for NU. (It would probably be a smart move, given how much time legislators spend with lobbyists.)

But for other lobbyists — particularly those competing with Malone for Fonfara’s votes — his hiring of Malone must be viewed as another arrow in Sullivan & LeShane’s quiver. One of Malone’s areas of focus is the Finance Committee, of which Fonfara is a vice chairman. Woe to the lobbyists who need to convince Fonfara that their proposals are more important than that of his employee. Does Malone think she would have a big advantage in that situation?

“That’s for somebody else to answer,” she said.

Fonfara, through his press agent, opted not to discuss the matter.

But one could certainly imagine the relationship helping Malone’s firm not only on pending bills, but in snapping up more business. To a potential client looking for a nod from the Finance Committee, wouldn’t Sullivan & LeShane have a leg up in getting the work?

Here’s a sample pitch the firm could give: If a committee leader trusts us enough to hire us, shouldn’t you?

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Contractors Working To Keep Trade Info From Public

2007-05-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

Like the rest of us, the business community is happy to hold state government accountable for the way it spends the public’s tax dollars.

But what happens when the state contracts work out to a business? How accountable should that business be held for their own use of taxpayer money?

This is being debated because the state Department of Social Services has begun receiving Freedom of Information requests, beginning in 2004, for information regarding the Medicaid services provided by managed care organizations (MCOs).

Three companies and a non-profit group won contracts totaling more than $700 million to collectively operate Medicaid in Connecticut: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Health Net, WellCare Health Plans and Community Health Network of Connecticut.

But advocates for low-income people in the state –- i.e. Medicaid recipients -– would like details about how those plans are operated; for instance, how much they are paying service providers. Not to mention whether little kids are being stiffed out of medical care.

Three of the four MCOs (all but WellCare) fought an initial request for information on the rates paid to doctors, but they seemed to meet rebuke wherever they turned. Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered the rates released. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal agreed. A suit in Superior Court to block the release failed. And after the rates had already been given out, the Freedom of Information Commission ruled against the companies as well.

It seemed like a sound beating for the MCOs, and one that might push the General Assembly to cast more operations of state contractors beneath the public’s purview.

Enter Keith J. Stover.

Trade Secrets
The bow-tied lobbyist for Robinson & Cole represents all MCOs in Connecticut, probably one of the biggest contracts around, and he has been making the case that if his clients are made to hand over further information –- like the criteria the companies use to set rates –- they would be forgoing a competitive advantage. That criteria is proprietary information, he says, which shouldn’t be disclosed.

Not only that, but what about other state contractors? The FOI Commission ruled that the MCOs’ information relative to their Medicaid operation should be public because it was part of their role in a “governmental function.”

But what about providing IT help or paving a highway? Are those governmental functions? One provision in the legislature (part of one of three bills on the issue) would make companies receiving contracts of $250,000 or above susceptible to public inquiries, lowered from the current $2.5 million.

“There are broad implications across the community of state contractors,” Stover said.

With that argument in hand, Stover produced the first victory for the MCOs since the pursuit of information began, getting the General Assembly’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee to accept a proposal exempting numerous records from FOI.

That turned the tables on those seeking more disclosure.

Jane McNichol, executive director of the Legal Assistance Resource Center in Hartford, has been one of the key advocates in getting information out of the MCOs.
“This is a $700 million program that is state and federally funded…it certainly requires scrutiny,” she said.

McNichol’s organization employs Betty Gallo and Co., specialists in progressive causes, and through other bills out there for which they will push, both were ready to stick with the FOI Commission’s decisions, rather than accept the Insurance Committee bill — at least after Stover was done with it.

For its part, the FOI Commission would be happy to see its decision stand, should no new legislation pass.

“We feel very good about the decisions that we issued — that current law supports the fact the managed care organizations when they are fulfilling their contractual role in regards to Medicare and Medicaid are subject to FOI requests,” said commission director Colleen M. Murphy.

She agreed with Stover on one point: The issue won’t just be about MCOs in the future.
“We weren’t specifically focusing on the MCOs,” she said.

“There are probably other companies down the road that will be affected.”

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

City's Lobbyist Search Uncloaks Wide Fee Structure

2007-05-03T22:39:00.000-04:00

Reliability. Integrity. Decorum.

Nine firms who applied for a two-plus year lobbying contract with the City of Stamford presented themselves as pillars of essentially the same values. In neatly printed letters, accompanied by lobbyists’ résumés, each promised to be a diligent, honorable servant in persuading policymakers on the city’s behalf.

But from the Stamford proposals, it’s clear not everyone puts the same price tag on their work. Not even close.

City Needs

The customer in this case, Stamford, has a legislative agenda that includes getting more state money for education and transportation projects, and solving its blackout-susceptible electricity infrastructure. Coming off a one-year contract with Elizabeth “Betsy” Gara and Associates, it received nine proposals by the Nov. 9 deadline for a government affairs contract that, once signed, would run through the end of the current legislative session and include all of 2008 and 2009.

Once the bids were in, five Stamford officials scored them independently, on the firm’s understanding of the city’s needs, experience, organization and cost.

So while the price wasn’t the only measure, it’s certainly the most quantifiable. Here were the bid amounts, from lowest to highest:

Elizabeth “Betsy” Gara & Assoc.: $90,000
TCORS Capitol Group: $95,400
The Kowalski Group: $122,854
Sullivan & LeShane: $150,000
Evans & Assoc.: $163,500
Gaffney, Bennett & Assoc.: $180,000
Murtha Cullina: $180,000
Brown Rudnick: $198,000
Camilliere, Cloud & Kennedy: $225,000

So not only was Gara the incumbent but in bidding $90,000 she offered the lowest price.

“We were confident we had done a good job,” Gara said in an interview.

That showed in her proposal, where the former Connecticut Business & Industry Association lobbyist detailed 15 positive legislative happenings for Stamford during her work for the city, including the passage of legislation giving towns more control over blighted properties and allowing them to conceal homeland security-related information.

When it came to price, Gara said she simply offered what she had been paid for the first year — $30,000 — and multiplied it by three.

“It wasn’t at all part of the strategy, it just seemed to be fair given the work,” she said.

Other firms bet they could get a lot more. For instance: The team of Anthony D. Camilliere, Christopher R. Cloud and Brendan J. Kennedy bid two-and-a-half times what Gara offered for her four-person team.

This didn’t seem to pay off. When it came time to scoring, the nearly quarter million dollar bid from Camilliere, Cloud & Kennedy finished sixth, ahead of only Kowalski, TCORS and — bringing up the rear — Evans & Assoc.

Another factor may have hurt the Camilliere crowd as well. Because of Stamford’s interest in revamping its electricity supply, Stamford was wary of hiring a firm with energy companies as clients, lest their priorities be subjugated.

Four of the firms -– Gara, Gaffney Bennett, Murtha Cullina and Sullivan & LeShane -– were invited in for interviews the week before Christmas. Robert L. Ruszkowski, purchasing agent, took notes.

Gaffney Bennett wasn’t an ideal choice because the firm represents Exxon Mobil Corp. and Northeast Utilities.

Though Murtha Cullina represented no energy companies, “a key member of the team was late,” Ruszkowski wrote. Isn’t showing up on time the first rule of a job interview? Points deducted.

That left Gara against Sullivan & LeShane. Though Gara offered the best price, Ruszkowski indicated that he was not pleased with the progress of the city’s funding proposals through the state Department of Transportation. He also wondered if Stamford needed a larger firm.

All five reviewers gave Sullivan & LeShane a score in the 90s. The firm asked for $40,000 this year, $50,000 for 2008 and $60,000 for 2009, making it $60,000 more pricey than Gara, but still less so than most others.

After the interview, Ruszkowski wrote, “This firm seems to have major connections in Hartford.” It was the strongest endorsement he gave anyone. Sullivan & LeShane won the contract and will officially be handed it shortly.

In an interview later, Ruszkowski put the Sullivan & LeShane choice simply: “They have very good access to the Governor’s office. But price was also an issue.”

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Dealing With The Elephant In The Room

2007-04-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

Every fall and spring, when America’s top circus company returns to the home state of founder P.T. Barnum, there are animal rights activists lying in wait.

No doubt this will be true next week when “The Greatest Show on Earth” comes to Hartford.
Regular circus-goers may be used to seeing protestors by now, although some protestors cross the line, as evidenced recently when eight agreed to fines for interrupting a show in Barnum’s hometown of Bridgeport last fall.

But the real threat to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus isn’t the picketers outside the tent, it’s the suits inside the state Capitol. Animal rights supporters, particularly those from People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA), may be known for shocking, attention-grabbing stunts, but the group’s lobbying work is crafty: It doesn’t push banning the circus outright — since one might as well try banning picnics or birthday parties — but instead continually offers up legislative proposals that would make the circus business financially untenable by removing its top selling point: elephants.

There are a bevy of examples from the last dozen years. A 1995 bill would have prevented elephants from being chained for more than two hours in any 24-hour period, making their participation on tour impossible. Another would have required that elephants be kept in a space only slightly larger than a typical railroad car –- the circus’s method of transport. A bill from last year would have created an “elephant inspection account” and $1,000 fee for animal cruelty.

The decade-plus long campaign appears to be grinding on the opposition.

“They’re like a little C.I.A. They have intelligence,” Carroll J. Hughes of Middletown’s Hughes & Cronin Public Affairs Strategies, said of PETA.

Harder Fight

Hughes has successfully fended off the save-the-elephants proposals for Feld Entertainment, parent of Ringing Bros., since 2005. But the fight isn’t getting any easier.

This year’s attempt to hinder the circus, he said, is “absolutely” the most serious. PETA and other animal rights supporters have proposed banning use of an ankus (often called a bullhook), a heavy baton with a metal hook on the end, to handle elephants. The device hurts elephants in PETA’s view, while Hughes says a properly used ankus is harmless and that banning it would make using elephants in Connecticut performances impossible. And without elephants –- its “core product” –- Hughes doubts the circus business can be profitable.

“The elephants are the number one card for drawing people to the circus. It’s the symbol of Ringling Bros.,” he said, noting the company’s logo.

“There is so much competition for entertainment. The thing that keeps it attractive and competitive is the elephants,” he added.

The two sides have entered into a sort of lobbying arms race. At a public hearing, animal rights supporters supplied a three-minute DVD with graphic images of elephant abuse to Environment Commmittee members and then trotted in a former Ringling Bros. employee, who detailed a gruesome 45-minute elephant beating that took place while she worked for the company.

Hughes has in turn talked about his client’s $5 million animal refuge in Central Florida and invited legislators for a behind-the-scenes viewing of the animals in the show and their treatment on May 10, the second day of the company’s stop in Hartford.

He also isn’t afraid to take shots at the competition. “Some of these people are fanatical terrorists,” he said.

Last week, the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee endorsed the measure to curtail the use of bullhooks to keep elephants in line.

What Hughes has yet to harness is the voice of the circus’s top customers, children and families, who he says are at-risk of being denied the opportunity to see the circus and see elephants up close. While local animal rights supporters –- including some of the same who were arrested last fall –- have come to the Capitol to lend their support, testimony for Ringling Bros. lacked real, live circus lovers, unless one counts someone from the “Outdoor Amusement Business Association” and the director of the “National Circus Fans Association of America.”

No doubt the crowds will come to the shows to vote with their pocket books, but will they also get on the phone to their local representative?

If not, when the “The Greatest Show on Earth” rolls into town next week, the Civic Center will be filled with Asian tigers and motorcycling clowns, but Hughes will be the one doing the acrobat work.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Retailers Take Aim At Protecting Firearms Sales

2007-04-23T10:35:00.000-04:00

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a nationally televised gun control speech earlier this month, the responding press release came from Newtown, Conn.

That’s the home of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a lobbying group for the firearms industry.

Oddly enough though, the group’s in-state location doesn’t mean local firearms retailers have more than a shot in the dark at stopping an annual barrage of ideas for restricting guns.

Every year the Connecticut General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee passes new restrictions on the use or sale of guns. Tears flow freely in the meeting room, as family members of homicide victims recount tragic human losses and how lax restrictions led to them.
This year is no different. At the committee’s April 10 public hearing, Southington’s Laura Bachman recounted the execution-style murder of her brother, performed with illegally owned weapons.

“My brother was killed in part because it is too easy to get guns in Connecticut,” she said.
In all, about 20 people submitted testimony supporting three bills that would require better reporting of lost or stolen firearms.

And from the more than 100 Connecticut firearms dealers? Nothing. Not a word. And this in the state where Samuel Colt and Oliver Winchester made their names. One has to wonder if either would have been able to grow his business here today.

Lock ’N’ Load

With that in mind, the gun retailers have had enough. About six months ago, 20 of them had a meeting and decided to form the Connecticut Association of Firearms Retailers.

Guy Bignell, president and CEO of the Greenwich gun shop Griffin & Howe, is its first secretary. He said Connecticut residents don’t realize the effect firearms sales have on the state’s economy, and points to figures from a national lobbying group showing that state firearms sales account for more than $40 million in annual retail sales and thousands jobs.

“We need to protect the industry in terms of its contribution to the economy,” he said.
Although he sells mostly hunting rifles and shotguns, he said “the minute you mention the word ‘gun,’ people think of Glocks and machine guns.”

That’s not a good image to be toting around at the State Capitol.

So not surprisingly, the group’s first order of business was to hire a lobbyist. On the same day as the committee hearing, they signed a veteran: Gary Costa, a consultant to the National Rifle Association who has been lobbying East Coast states for years.

“They came together simply because they saw that a lot of these bills were directed right at them,” Costa said of the gun retailers.

He said there was little point in going before the judiciary committee, calling it “a ridiculous waste of time”.

“What they’re doing in Connecticut is an attempt to hamstring legal business. They’re trying to make doing business difficult for the firearms retailer,” he said.

The harder step for gun control advocates has been the Public Safety and Security Committee, which has traditionally been more cautious in regulating firearms.

And this time, instead of just hunters and sportsmen and someone from the NRA on the other side, there will be a local industry there, talking about jobs and the economy.

“I mean, this is the home of the firearms industry of America,” Bignell said.

“We’re just a little late to protect Winchester.”

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Ethics Audit Gives Glimpse Inside Top Lobbyist

2007-04-16T10:40:00.000-04:00

Rarely does one get to peek into the books of the largest, most lucrative lobbying firm in the state.

It is the uncommon chance to learn about a $10,000 American Express bill, an $8,000 retirement party, and dinners on the town with legislators, which neither lobbyists nor politicians usually like to discuss.

But the Office of State Ethics can audit up to 20 registered lobbying clients per year, choosing the unfortunate victims by lottery.

In October, it plucked a client of Gaffney, Bennett & Assoc. of New Britain, in all likelihood the biggest moneymaker in the state. (We can’t be sure because the ethics office has been unable to provide compensation numbers since 2004, when Gaffney Bennett brought in $3.8 million in total compensation.)

But the 13-page audit shows how very serious the OSE is about audits.

Combing through a three-year period from Oct. 1, 2003 to the same time in 2006, it found 17 transgressions of state rules made by the firm. That may sound like a lot, but there is nothing more sinister than handing in paperwork late or divvying up a dinner bill wrong, and the office plans to take no action.

So there are no scandals in the Gaffney Bennett audit, but it offers an excellent opportunity to see the changing place of entertainment, parties and dinners in the firm’s business atop the government relations market.

A Good Time

The audit makes clear that Gaffney Bennett has not been shy about entertaining, even if legislators and state employees pay their own way to avoid having to report gifts.

Witness the December 2003 retirement party for J. Brian Gaffney, a founder of the firm and former chairman of George H.W. Bush’s Connecticut campaigns for president. Held at the Shuttle Meadow Country Club, in Berlin, the event cost $8,075.88 for 142 people.

On the same day as his party (paid for by check), the firm paid off Gaffney’s $10,136.37 American Express bill.

Another party came after the Republican National Convention, in the summer of 2004, when the firm paid nearly $6,000 to host an “after-hours party” at a bar in New York City with a live band, sponsored along with ING and Northeast Utilities.

Dinners and lunches of $50 to $60 per person were commonplace. Gaffney took Patrick Downes, a deputy at the Department of Public Works at the time, and another guest to a $152 lunch on an island in Florida. Lisa M. Fecke, still lobbying for the firm, took Rep. Michael Caron (R-Killingly) and two other guests to Trumbull Kitchen for $155.

From a business perspective, is there any doubt that all the spending on food and drinks paid off?

Gaffney Bennett’s lobbying unit has been at the top of the heap since 1991, when its four lobbyists displaced Sullivan & LeShane as the state’s top moneymaker. Jay F. Malcynsky, managing partner of the firm, estimates that it has grown revenue 5-15 percent annually every year since its inception. It now has eight lobbyists, who handle business for at least 72 registered clients, and probably more that the state has yet to post.

The Last Sip

But the view that political lobbying is about throwing parties and taking people out to dinner couldn’t be more erroneous, particularly under the new rules, according to Malcynsky.

“The perception that this is an entertainment-based business couldn’t be more off the mark. I can’t remember the last time I had dinner with a legislator,” he said. He pointed out that there were no state officials at events like Gaffney’s retirement party, just clients, colleagues and friends.

This is particularly true under the new campaign finance rules, not because the rules forbid the entertaining, but the paperwork needed to be in compliance has made some activities too much of a hassle.

The audit offers such an example from a 2005 appropriations committee party to which Gaffney Bennett gave $100. For years, lobbying firms have helped pay for legislative committees to hold “JF” parties, to celebrate having met the deadline for acting on most of their bills, by joint favorable report. Routine stuff: I help buy food for your party, you listen to me when I need to talk to you.

But the new rules require documentation of the per-person cost of the party, to ensure the money wasn’t actually a gift to a legislator or staffer.

That requires finding a guest list, determining each attendee’s position with the state (if any) and figuring out whether the firm’s donation amounted to more than $10 in spending per official.
Talk about a pain in the backside. So Gaffney Bennett has decided to stop contributing to JF parties altogether. That was music to the ear of Andy Sauer, executive director of Connecticut Common Cause, a good government group. “It shows a change of culture,” Sauer said.
Same thing with taking legislators out to dinner, Malcynsky said.

“Typically we don’t do that with legislators. I don’t think anybody does much of that any more,” he said.

He added that this isn’t the first time the firm has had to react to changing state ethics rules; constantly responding to them has become part of the business.

“It’s something that you have to place close attention to.”

Jonathan O'Connell is a staff writer for the Hartford Business Journal.

A Shocking Approach To Lobbying A Lawmaker

2007-03-29T10:44:00.000-04:00

There’s no shortage of gimmicks and handouts from lobbying groups trying to get legislators to understand their positions. Clean energy boosters give rides in a fuel cell-powered bus, while dairy farmers offer cheese samples.

But Jay Kehoe takes things a big step further. He Tasers people.

People like the head of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee.

Whom he took down with a Taser in the middle of a public hearing at the Legislative Office Building.

A former Glastonbury police officer, Kehoe is a lobbyist for Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Ariz. As an East Coast representative, he has been to Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut and other states touting the safety and effectiveness of Tasers as a tool of law enforcement and self defense.

“Electronic defense weapons,” the unbranded term for Tasers, incapacitate a person’s muscles for five seconds by pumping an electric shock through two metal prongs that can be fired from up to 30 feet away.

The most basic version available, the Taser C2, looks like a plastic gun, sells for $299.95 and comes with a training DVD. You can get it in one of four snazzy colors: Black Pearl, Titanium Silver, Electric Blue or –- for the ladies — Metallic Pink.

Close to 10,000 Tasers are in use by law enforcement across the country. Unlike pepper spray, Kehoe argues, Tasers are effective no matter what part of the body they hit. Unlike guns, he says, Tasers are non-lethal.

“The Taser has never been identified as the cause of death for anybody,” he said.

Misconceptions

Kehoe’s job is made much more difficult by a handful of rather graphic displays of Taser abuse by law enforcement officials that have been posted on the Internet, many of which lead to glaring newspaper headlines and what he views as misconceptions among the public. When Kehoe came to testify in front of the General Assembly’s judiciary committee March 16, he said there were “all kinds of misconceptions” among committee members as to the danger of Tasers.

One of the people who has been watching those videos is Rep. Michael P. Lawlor (D-East Haven), the committee’s co-chair. A former state prosecutor, Lawlor favors a bill restricting sale of the devices to law enforcement officials.

“I don’t think that private citizens should have them. It just isn’t appropriate,” Lawlor said. He and the committee are also considering a bill with new rules for police, aimed at preventing Taser misuse of the Internet-video variety.

So with the two anti-Taser measures on the table, Kehoe came to the committee to make his pitch. And, seeing Lawlor’s skepticism in his product, he made a bold offer, or one might say, a dare.

How would Lawlor like to be Tasered, right then and there?

Not one to back down, Lawlor accepted. In the middle of a room normally reserved for drawn-out judicial nominations, he removed his tie and dress shirt and stood ready in his undershirt.

Kehoe’s Taser performed as advertised. When the prongs stuck into his back, Lawlor let loose a groan and dropped hard into the waiting arms of volunteers immediately beside him like he was being saved by a televangelist.

Afterward Lawlor said it felt like he’d been mechanically and soundly punched in the back for five straight seconds, paralyzing him.

“There’s a little bit of blood on your T-shirt, but it doesn’t really hurt,” he said. Lawlor recovered in just a few minutes.

For Kehoe, the Tasering was an impressively bold move that brought terrific drama, but also a lot of risk. No matter how much he believes in his product –- and how clearly that belief is communicated by the demonstration –- isn’t there some risk to publicly decapacitating the committee chair?

Kehoe, who drives a Hummer with the license plate TASER, doesn’t think so. He said he’d done it thousands of times to prove the device’s safety.

“I’ve Tasered legislators, news reporters, judges. I’ve Tasered probably 3,500 people,” he said.

“You never truly understand it until you get a hit from a Taser.”

Unfortunately for the company, the device doesn’t seem to have had the intended political effect on Lawlor. He said that although the Taser was far less painful than a stun gun (which he has also experienced), if he had not had volunteers beside him he could have seriously cracked his skull on the fall.

“It didn’t really change my views. It’s not much different than I thought,” he said. n

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Some Lobbyists Say Land-Use Regs Are Just Hooey

2007-03-22T10:50:00.000-04:00

In every Connecticut town, residents have a different idea about what they should see when they look out the window.

Should it be a city street? Suburbs? A forest? A farm?

But as towns take more of a say in how land should be used, business becomes more difficult for industries that require large tracts of acreage.

That struggle has united two industries, farmers and home builders, against the growing number of towns passing new rules limiting business’ use of land.

Farmers who have been working the same land for generations are facing new rules and proposed rules about how large they can build new barns, how they clear space for fields and how they control livestock and chickens.

“We’re seeing just more and more attempts to curtail how land use is utilized,” said Bonnie E. Burr, lobbyist for the Connecticut Farm Bureau.

For builders, keeping track of 169 different inklings isn’t easy. The group considers local zoning changes a severe clamp on business and a sort of war on suburbia. On the group’s Web site, one can learn about books such as “War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life.”

Seeking Solon Solace

So as more towns become unhappy with what they see out their windows, more bills that would restrict land use have found their way to the General Assembly. One would give towns greater control over wetlands, which would keep farmers from clearing trees from and planting on certain parts of their land, and prevent developers from building anything there.

So it follows that the farmers consider groups like the Homebuilders Association of Connecticut important allies in the lobbying fight.

“They are usually with us because it’s about what you can do with the land,” Burr said.

Should the two groups win the land use battle however, don’t expect them to remain buddy-buddy too much longer.

Because it isn’t just ideological wetlands-lovers who are driving new rules in the legislature, it’s the people buying the new homes. Or, in other words, the customers of the homebuilders.

The influx of those who want nice, big pseudo-country houses in the formerly rural parts of the state drives big business to homebuilders. But they are the very same people who complain about farms to town leaders.

When they decide where to build their new homes, people love to choose romantic spots in the country. Looking out at a quaint family farm sounds particularly nice.

What they don’t realize –- or care about — is that those farms are businesses, and in a lot of cases struggling businesses that might need to make changes to stay afloat.

Agri-biz

Dairy farmer Paul Miller said a new rule in Pomfret has kept him from adding a new barn because of a restriction on building anything more than 10,000 square feet. He said residents complain about the noise of machinery and even the idea to change a stonewall fence, which might look nice, to a fence that functioned much better.

Meanwhile, he said he took out a $300,000 loan recently “just to pay the bills.”

“They want to be able to look at a nice green field, but they don’t want anyone to spread manure on it,” Miller said.

In some cases, the residents who pester town leaders to quiet down the local farms are also becoming the town leaders. That’s a problem for Burr.

In the Farm Bureau’s newsletter last month, the group complained that town officials today have no understanding of the farmer’s perspective.

“We can no longer assume elected officials have any farm experience at all,” it read.

Burr said fewer elected officials in both towns and the state have “hard experience with land use.” “It can take a while making sure they get trained,” she said.

Maybe residents would prefer that farmers like Miller would just go away, as they are doing in government. And maybe they will. But guess who’s calling the farmers on the phone, offering higher and higher prices for struggling farmland?

That’s right: the homebuilders.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Ticket Scalping Less Shady

2007-03-15T10:55:00.000-04:00

For many of us, it ranks among jaywalking and speeding as a crime that most of us wouldn’t mind breaking –- especially if we can make 20 bucks off it.

And it seems the General Assembly might agree, at least this time around.

Ticket scalping, long an important revenue stream for shady guys standing outside the Hartford Civic Center on event nights, has become big business for Web sites that allow consumers to buy and sell tickets online, and charge commissions for it.

Not surprisingly, many such sales are for more than the face-value of tickets, which makes them illegal in Connecticut (unless the difference is only $3 or less).

Scalping isn’t considered altogether kosher behavior, particularly when brokers buy large blocks of tickets with the sole intent of reselling them for more.

That was the feeling of Sen. Thomas A. Colapietro (D-Bristol), co-chair of the General Law committee, who said at a public hearing last month that he was worried that “only rich people” would be able to pay $200 for a $25 ticket.

“I’m worried about the guy that sleeps outside the ticket window to get his tickets so that the broker can make more money off of it,” Colapietro said.

The practice also raised the ire of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who pushed the online reseller StubHub to create a popup window on its site with a reminder that scalping by businesses or residents in the state was illegal. Sort of like a “Speed Limit: 55” highway sign.

It turns out that Connecticut has its own “ticket reseller” in Vernon, called Ticket Network, and that reseller has a lobbying firm (Murtha Cullina). Ticket Network facilitates ticket deals between brokers, as well as for the general public through the Web site Ticketliquidator.com.

More importantly, it employs 117 people.

Because the company is headquartered in Connecticut, Tickets Network is barred from facilitating scalping of Connecticut events.

“Basically, it was going to be too hard to operate it for Connecticut residents and comply with the law,” Nicholas Eve, an executive vice president for the company, said in an interview.

Of course resellers from other states, including StubHub (in California), eBay (same), Ticketmaster (New England headquarters in Massachusetts) and TicketsNow (Illinois) have no problem jumping in and jacking up the prices of UConn basketball games, Bushnell performances and, of course, Justin Timerblake concerts.

And soon after Murtha Cullina marched Eve before the committee to tell them he was losing business, scalping suddenly became less about ticket prices for the little guy, and more about jobs for the little guy.

Colapietro, who had been so skeptical about the fairness of the scalping business in mid-February, moved with the rest of the committee last week to completely remove the scalping ban, except for profit-making deals made within 1,500 feet of an event on the day it is taking place (meaning the shady guys will have to remain shady).

Because of an administrative screw-up, the bill would need to be attached to another measure to pass, but Colapietro said he would consider doing so, paving the way for the public to buy and sell tickets at whatever price they like (even if only rich people can afford it). This is okay with Colapietro, provided that the local companies make a buck.

“I just felt like our guys were being treated unfair,” Colapietro said, referring to the local reseller this time, not the consumer.

He even let it be known that he didn’t appreciate the lobbying efforts of Ticketmaster’s Michael Norton, who he said “looked like a butler.”

“This guy comes in from California or Massachusetts or wherever and tells us what we should be doing. I call him the butler,” Colapietro said.

If the bill does pass, Eve will enjoy the opportunity not only to drive over 65 from New Haven (where he lives) to Vernon every day, but to help consumers sell tickets at whatever price they like. He said research showed that scalping was low on a list of lawbreaking that the public didn’t approve of.

“Ticket scalping shows up pretty low on that list. After, I think, speeding,” he said.
It looks like he’s right.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Pulling The Trigger On 'Trigger Leads'

2007-03-09T11:03:00.000-05:00

Don't look now but one of the most regulation-loathing industries out there is lobbying to get itself more heavily policed: the banks.

So much for the free market.

It seems some mortgage lenders have taken up the practice of buying leads from credit reporting agencies so they can poach the business of home buyers who are having their credit checks run. Customers who have decided on a bank for a mortgage find themselves getting ambushed by pitches from other lenders and marketers, offering (however implausibly) to beat whatever rate the customer has been offered.

Testifying before the Banks Committee, Rockville Bank President William J. McGurk said the practice allowed invasive lenders and brokers to siphon off business that the original banker had spent weeks or months developing, and compared the experience to setting tomato plants in the spring and nurturing them all summer.

"Then in August, somebody comes by and steals my nice, ripe, red tomatoes," McGurk said.

Either that, or the customer blames the bank for leaking their application information, which doesn't help in building customer trust.

"When a customer submits an application, they expect privacy," McGurk said.

So now the bankers are trying to crack down on themselves for using "trigger leads," as they call them.

The Connecticut Bankers Association had its lobbyists - CBA Vice President Thomas Mongellow and Richard "Fritz" Conway, of Gaffney Bennett -- help draft a bill that would prohibit brokers or lenders (a.k.a. the association's own members) from using leads from credit reports.

It seems a bit like asking mom to please stop allowing you to shoplift, and then spending a lot of money to convince her.

But state Rep. Ryan Barry (D-Manchester), co-chair of the Banks Committee, was happy to comply. An attorney whose clients include mortgage applicants, Barry said the practice amounted to "a trampling of people's privacy rights."

Clients "complain to me that they had gone through a bank for a mortgage, then within a day or two they had gotten an onslaught of offers by mail or by phone from other lenders or brokers," he said.

Also firmly in support are the usual industry watchdogs, Banking Commissioner Howard F. Pitkin and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, both of whom often find themselves on the other side of the banks when new regulatory ideas come up.

But not in this case. In addition to the Connecticut Bankers Association, other associations paying to keep their own members in line are the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association (another Gaffney Bennett client) and the Connecticut Society of Mortgage Brokers.

Conway said it could be that a lot of the trigger lead users were from out of state, but that he was sure that "some of the members that we have on board" were among the culprits, though they won't be raising their hands to identify themselves.

Source Of Contention

"There seem to be some who either used it at one time or know someone who used it," Conway said.

Same goes for mortgage brokers. Peter Spalthoff, executive director of the mortgage brokers group, said the use of trigger leads had become a source of contention between members, particularly because two credit bureaus, The Credit Bureau of Connecticut, in West Haven, and Strategic Information Resources, in Springfield, Mass., are members. The first is a sales agent for TransUnion, the second for Experian, two of three national firms that sell leads generated from credit checks. (The other is Equifax.)

"They are getting a lot of flak from the broker industry," Spalthoff said. He said he had received assurances from the two companies that they had no role in leaking or selling customer information, but that hadn't placated everyone.

"We've almost gone to our membership to dump them," Spalthoff said.

Not surprisingly, with all the regulators and all the banks behind it, the bill sailed through the Banks Committee last week. Rep. Barry said he hasn't heard opposition from anyone, much less any self-identified trigger lead users.

"Most of the firms I've talked to said they don't really use them," he said.

Jonathan O'Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Depositions On Deposits Return To Legislative Halls

2007-03-01T11:17:00.000-05:00

In 1978, when the legislature was considering creating a bottle deposit program, a group of Teamsters drove beer trucks around the State Capitol in circles. The idea was to convince legislators not to create a bottle and can deposit program, an idea the Teamsters viewed a serious threat to business.

Among those trucking around was John Hollis, a driver for Hartford Distributors (an Anheuser-Busch affiliate) who doesn’t generally consider himself an environmentalist.

“I eat cooked owl for lunch,” he jokes.

This time around though, as the environment committee mulls an expansion of the deposit program, Hollis has joined the tree huggers. He said that in the 20-plus years since the law passed, more than 300 jobs have been created for warehouse workers, drivers and other positions involved in trucking and processing containers for deposit. Some drivers earn an extra $100 per week picking up the empties.

“Throughout the years, it’s worked. I was wrong,” he said.

Hollis is about the only one who has flipped sides in the battle over whether deposits should be required for containers of water and all other non-carbonated drinks, and whether the deposit should be raised to 10 cents, compared to the 5 cents currently offered for beer and soda containers.

Lined up on one side are some of the state’s biggest buyers of lobbying services, including Pepsi, Coke, Greenwich-based Nestlé Waters North America (owner of Poland Springs) and the Conn. Beer Wholesalers Assoc. Collectively, those companies employ the state’s biggest lobbying teams – Gaffney, Bennett & Associates, Robinson & Cole and Sullivan & LeShane — and none of them wants to see an extra 5 or 10 cents added to their products in Connecticut. They warn that the handling costs of the empties – which the Teamsters welcome - could add to the price of a bottle of water or juice.

Equally concerned are grocery sellers, who aren’t interested in having to store and handle thousands more bottles, as grocers from West Hartford, Manchester and Simsbury showed up to say.

Kids At Play

“None of the members in the association want to be in the garbage business,” said Carrie Rand-Anastasiades, contract lobbyist for the Connecticut Food Association.

On the other side are greenies like the local Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, which trotted in 20 enthusiastic middle- and high-school students from Farmington in green and white t-shirts. The environmentalists believe that recycling rates would be dramatically improved by offering a larger and expanded deposit.

“There’s no question that it’s an incentive for them to be picked up,” said Jessie Stratton for the Sierra Club.

Considering the bill is likely to pass the committee, as it did in 2005, the challenge for the big-money lobbyists, according to Gaffney Bennett’s Lisa Fecke, is to convince members of the House that there are too many other important items on the agenda.

The environmentalists, meanwhile, say they have a commitment from House Speaker James A. Amann (D-Milford) to bring the bill to a vote, and believe rank-and-file House members are coming around to the idea.

“The tide has turned…The people who weren’t with us are beginning to tell us they’re with us,” said Betty McLaughlin for the Audubon Society.

Muddied Waters

But as in most debates at the Capitol, the two sides aren’t as clear cut as one might think.

Even environmentally minded people wonder if the deposit system is really a good way of reducing litter. Most people find it inconvenient to drive trash bags of leaking bottles around to be returned, particularly if they have to cart them home from work first.

Business is not neatly aligned against the idea because of middlemen like the Teamsters and the state’s redemption centers, which collect the containers and sell the material. And considering the current fawning over “green” business, it’s not a great time to be seen as anything less than an energy-saving, fair trade-loving recycler.

Therein may lay a tiny opportunity for compromise. Brian Flaherty, a former state representative now a lobbyist for Nestlé, believes there are better ways to boost recycling (like an expansion of the curbside bin program), but said he wanted to distinguish the company from Coke and Pepsi as open to the idea.

“They’re saying no-no-no. We’re saying if you do it, realize what you’re doing to us. And take a look at what Connecticut’s recycling program really needs,” Flaherty said.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

High-Fives For Amann From Tobacco Lobby

2007-02-28T11:10:00.000-05:00

The speaker of the house recently lambasted the governor’s plan to raise taxes, taking specific aim at her idea to raise the cigarette tax $0.49 to two bucks a pack.

Saying the proposal “nickeled and dimed the poor again,” James A. Amann (D-Milford) indicated that such an increase would unfairly target low- and moderate-income people, who buy more cigarettes.

No one disputes the speaker’s assertion that cigarette taxes disproportionately generate revenue from the poor. But if Amann’s comments are a valiant effort to protect the poor, one would expect to see progressive lobbyists high-fiving each other in every corner of the Legislative Office Building.

But they’re not.

That’s because groups that lobby on behalf of the poor aren’t opposing the cigarette tax increase. Their lobbyists aren’t pushing charts and talking points the speaker’s way. They’re not sending out legislative alerts to members. Many of them have not even taken a position on the issue.

“We haven’t really come out with a stance on it,” said Lucy Nolan. Nolan lobbies for End Hunger Connecticut!, where she is executive director, and is also chair of One Connecticut, a faction of more than 100 poverty-fighting organizations. She said the issue came up briefly at a recent meeting of lobbyists for the poor, but that it was bypassed for issues people felt strongly about.

One Connecticut sent a letter last week to Amann and other legislative leaders about key poverty-fighting issues, and barely mentioned the cigarette tax increase.

“People were sort of split on the cigarette tax,” Nolan said.

Wallet V. Wellness

There is good reason for that. While a higher cigarette tax would target poor people’s wallets, it would also probably improve their health –- and lower their health care costs –- by encouraging them not to smoke.

That’s the feeling at CT Voices for Children, which has hired former Dannel Malloy running mate Mary Glassman as a lobbyist, but also has not opposed the cigarette tax increase.

“That sort of deterrent to smoke is even more significant for kids,” said Douglas Hall, a CT Voices for Children researcher.

“We don’t want to see kids smoking cigarettes, obviously, so from that perspective it’s a good thing.”

Same idea at Legal Assistance Resource Center, in Hartford, where lobbyist Jane McNichol is the executive director.

“We still felt it was very hard to get away from the public health benefits,” McNichol said. That doesn’t mean she thinks it’s a good idea; Nolan, McNichol and Hall all decreed tobacco taxes as regressive and unreliable, but McNichol said her organization “would not be opposing it.”

So if lobbyists paid to represent the poor aren’t opposing the cigarette tax increase, why is the speaker doing so in their name?

Strangely, although the speaker’s comments aren’t supported by the do-gooder community, they are being echoed in chorus by free market groups and tobacco companies.

Americans for Prosperity, a Washington anti-tax group, released comments pointing out that tobacco taxes “are frequently borne by low-income Americans.”

A similar group, FreedomWorks, e-mailed around comments such as this: “When times get tough for hard-working families in Connecticut, they have to cut expenses and pinch pennies.

Why shouldn’t families expect the same from their government?”

Tobacco companies don’t love having their lobbyists in the newspaper (lest they end up like Nick Naylor, kidnapped and covered in nicotine patches), but R.J. Reynolds spokesman John Singleton, also offered nearly the same argument as Amann.

“It’s really a working man’s tax. It adversely affects low- and moderate-income individuals, in our view,” he said.

The similarity is striking. It leads one to wonder if the speaker is serving more as a mouthpiece for industry than as an advocate for the poor.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.

Kiss Your PACs Goodbye

2007-01-30T08:17:00.000-05:00

Time to pack up the bar stools and the tikki torches.

Following the removal of lobbyists from the fundraising process by new campaign finance rules, the political committees that used to hold big-money events to back candidates or campaigns are closing down.

According to an early count by the State Elections and Enforcement Commission, 79 political action committees filed their termination papers for the Jan. 10 deadline, the first since the new rules went into effect.

Not only that, but among the roughly 630 PACs that are still technically in operation, it’s a good bet that a lot of them, like the Connecticut Bar Association PAC, have ceased fundraising and are thinking about what to do next. Only about 220 PACs sent in a form by the deadline indicating that they will continue operations. While the state doesn’t require the committees to send a form in every filing deadline (at least not yet) it’s not a great sign that so few sent theirs in.

The drop-outs come from all corners of society, as businesses, associations, non-profit groups and advocates alike are all facing the dilemma of how to raise and donate money without the help of registered lobbyists.

Wide And Deep
There are committees of associations, like the American Council of Engineering Companies, American Insurance Association and Connecticut Construction Industries Association. There are energy industry committees, like the Connecticut Power PAC and United Illuminating’s PAC.

And of course there are lobbying firms and law firms and those that do both, making for a long list of ampersands: Levin, Powers, Brennan & Shea; Updike, Kelly & Spellacy; Halloran & Sage; Blum Shapiro; and Tobin, Carberry, O’Malley, Riley & Selinger have all closed their PACs.

But perhaps most telling of all is the health insurers. Even as they weigh in on their biggest issue in decades, the debate over dramatically expanding access to health care, Aetna and Connecticare have closed their PACs, unable to find a use for them under the new rules. Connecticare did so even as its CEO, Mickey Herbert, opted to personally register as a lobbyist so he could put more time in talking to legislators himself. Aetna closed its PAC on Dec. 31, even as it continues to operates PACs in other states around the country.

“We felt that we wanted to be compliant with the new law and that it was prudent to discontinue the PAC until we had a clear understanding of the new law’s implications,” said Deborah Hoyt, at Aetna. What she means is the company isn’t sure what to do yet.

Aetna isn’t alone, of course. The old adage that money finds a way into politics may be true, but to this point, a lot of companies that have been willing to spend to get on the good side of legislators are still figuring out how best to spend that money down the road. Until then, packages of those little cocktail umbrellas can probably go into storage.