The Providence Journal, R.I., business notes column.

By John Kostrzewa, The Providence Journal, R.I. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 20--REED, CHAFEE IN THE THICK OF SOCIAL SECURITY DEBATE: Rhode Islanders last week moved to the middle of the national debate on Social Security.

U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee was one of three Republicans targeted in local TV ads by The Club for Growth, a conservative political organization in Washington, D.C.

The TV ads urged viewers to call on Chafee and Representatives Joe Schwartz of Michigan and Sherwood Boehlert of New York to support President Bush's proposal to allow younger workers to invest some of their payroll tax in personal Social Security accounts.

Chafee and the other two are considered undecided on the issue.

On the other side of the aisle, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, worked as one of the Democrats' point men on Social Security. Anticipating Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony on Wednesday, Reed held a national media conference the day before to raise preemptive questions on the impact of Mr. Bush plan's on the deficit and whether it would improve Social Security's solvency.

Then after Greenspan's testimony, Reed showed up on national TV broadcasts …