Dems want more info on Rell’s use of pollster
Democrats want more info; Blumenthal fields complaints
By Ted Mann
Published on 10/9/2009
Hartford - Democrats at the Capitol
Thursday sharply criticized Gov. M. Jodi
Rell’s use of a polling expert to provide
political guidance as part of an ongoing
study on state budget reforms.
At a press conference in the Capitol,
House Speaker Christopher Donovan,
D-Meriden, and Senate Majority Leader
Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said
Rell should more fully explain the work
performed by Ken Dautrich, a professor
at the University of Connecticut,
who conducted a focus group to test
acceptance of Rell’s budget positions
and advised on a poll conducted by her
exploratory campaign committee.
And Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal confirmed that he had
forwarded “whistleblower complaints”
about the Dautrich project to the state
Auditors of Public Accounts for their
review.
“There have been a number of complaints
sent to us which we have shared with
the Auditor for Public Accounts as
is the standard procedure with any
whistleblower complaints,” Blumenthal
told The Day. “After their review is
completed we will discuss with the
auditors whether an investigation by this
office is warranted.”
Lawmakers seized on the findings of a
memo Dautrich sent in December 2008
to Rell’s chief of staff Lisa Moody and
special assistant Matthew Fritz, declaring
it to be evidence that the purpose of the
focus group was inherently political.
The memo recommended Rell continue
her opposition to increasing income
taxes, citing the opposition to that move
among participants. The memo also
advised that participants held favorable
views of Blumenthal, then a potential
gubernatorial challenger, and suggested
Rell should therefore take care to
emphasize her “vision” for the state.
“What we find difficult to swallow is
while we’re ... trying to find what’s best
for the state, the governor is employing a
consultant to give her political advice on
how to make decisions based on political
advantage,” Donovan said.
Donovan and Looney also disputed Rell’s
charge that legislators have also used
public funds to pay for polls or focus
groups in the past. Each said any such
activity would have been paid for by a
respective caucus political committee,
not out of the public funds that support
their caucus staffs.
“For political purposes, you use political
dollars,” Donovan said. “For state
purposes, you use state dollars.”
Looney and others zeroed in on the focus
group memo’s mention of Blumenthal,
who at the time was a rumored
Democratic gubernatorial candidate, as
suggesting that the purpose of the public
opinion gathering was primarily to
secure political advantage for Rell.
Rell representatives and Dautrich
suggested Thursday that reports about
Dautrich’s focus group and consultation
on the Rell campaign poll were being
overblown.
In an appearance on The Faith Middleton
Show on WNPR-FM, Dautrich noted
that the cost of conducting the focus
group had been about $2,000 of the
$223,000 overall budget for his review
project, and said the budget reforms he
had recommended had potentially saved
millions for the state.
In a written statement, Rell said the
administration “worked very hard to
ensure that the work he did and the
questions he asked were policy-based,
dealing with budget, spending and taxing
issues.”
The revelation of Dautrich’s opinion work
nonetheless brought sharp condemnation
and calls for more accounting from
Rell from a variety of political rivals,
including Democrats considering the
2010 governor’s race.
“It certainly appears that Governor
Rell used taxpayer money for her own
political benefit, which, at the very least,
raises serious ethical concerns,” said
Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy. “If true, it
means she paid to find out what people
wanted to hear, and then she told them
exactly that - knowing it wasn’t true,
but that it might work for her politically.
This may very well explain her bizarre
behavior in the budget debacle over the
past eight months.”
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz
called the focus group an “outrageous
abuse of taxpayer dollars,” adding
that state auditors, ethics officials and
Blumenthal’s staff should investigate
whether the project represented a proper
use of state funds.
“A real leader doesn’t need a poll or a
focus group to tell her how to balance a
budget,” she added.
“Significant questions are again raised”
about Moody’s role in the administration,
said Sen. Gary LeBeau, D-East Hartford,
another potential gubernatorial candidate,
who called the incident “another possibly
illegal and certainly unethical action on
the part of the Governor’s office.”
“I know the Governor supports public
financing of campaigns, but I don’t think
this is what we had in mind,” he said.
t.mann@theday.com