Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas Endorses Rick Perry
Lee, over at I Love Beer, recently announced that the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas just endorsed incumbent Governor Rick Perry in next year's election. If you are a supporter of craft beer and a Republican, I think your mind has just been made up.
Labels: Beer Politics
posted by hiikeeba at 07:32
5 Comments:
I would have guessed brewers to be independents! Ha! Who knew brewers are so politically charged? Is there a particular reason this group supports Perry-- such as he supports hops and barley farmers' tax incentives?
Whew! Long story. 'Kay: Small brewers like Saint Arnold in Houston want to sell beer on the tours and use that money for capital improvements. Texas (and most states) have a three tier system that requires a distributor sell beer to a retailer, who will sell it to the customer, which means a brewer cannot ever sell directly to a consumer. For the last 8 years, brewers have been trying to get a law passed that will allow them to sell their product on the brewery grounds, like wineries do. The Wholesalers lobby spends millions of dollars on state legislators to make sure that doesn't happen. Wholesalers are extremely powerful: most counties have two distributors, and there are only 6 breweries in Texas.
To answer your question, my guess is that Perry promised to veto any bill that would allow breweries to sell beer on premise like wineries do in exchange for campaign funds. It has been said that no one gets elected without wholesalers lobby approval.
What can I say? I like tilting at windmills.
I'm a journalism student at UT and I've been interviewing brewpub/brewery owners for my final project on craft breweries in Texas. One topic that continues to arise during the interviews is the distribution laws. I have found this so unfair that I'm considering creating a documentary about it with some friends of mine. Do you have any ideas how I might go about getting some funding for it?
You might contact the Brewers Association in Boulder Colorado, www.beertown.org, for assistance. Please keep me posted on your progress.
Jfritz: If you're on Facebook, you might also try to collaborate with Texas Microbrewery Advocates: http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=17600648100&ref=ts
Please keep me posted on your work, as well.
Post a Comment
<< Home