SacBee: Intuit tries to beat John Chiang for helping taxpayers

According to the Sacramento Bee, software giant Intuit is spending a million dollars to try to beat Democrat John Chiang in his run for California State Controller:

Software giant Intuit has invested $1 million in an independent committee called the Alliance for California's Tomorrow and is spending money for [Republican Tony] Strickland.

Unlike the tribes, Intuit has a direct interest in what the controller does. Chiang and the current office holder, Steve Westly, have supported efforts by the Franchise Tax Board to simplify the tax filing process through a process called "ReadyReturn," which helps low-income Californians quickly file their returns.

Intuit sees ReadyReturn as a threat to sales of its well known tax preparation software, TurboTax. So now it is trying to prevent Chiang from becoming controller, serving on the Franchise Tax Board and cutting into its market share.