Article by Erik Smith. Published on Tuesday, July 06, 2010 EST.

Liquor Wholesalers Added Half-Million in Final Week – Dollars Also Flow to Workers’ Comp Opposition Campaign

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, July 6.—Looks like those last-minute signature drives cost plenty!

            We still haven’t seen the final campaign-finance reports from this year’s initiative signature-gathering campaigns, but it looks like the liquor wholesalers were plowing money into Initiative 1105 right up until the closing bell.

            Last Wednesday the two liquor wholesalers that have been bankrolling the campaign dumped nearly a half-million dollars into the effort, bringing their total contribution to nearly $2 million.

            The campaign turned in 360,000 signatures last Friday, the final day to turn in signatures. That was more than enough to make the ballot.

            What the big spending really showed is that when a campaign gets started late, paid signature gatherers can still bring home the prize. But oh, what a cost!

            A competing liquor-store privatization initiative favored by retailers, I-1100, hit the target as well. But it got started two and a half weeks earlier and the campaign hit the magic number for less than half the money.

            Two Late-Starting Campaigns Spent Big

            This year’s crowded ballot is notable because it sets up a number of high-profile contests between business and the state’s labor/progressive alliance. Six initiative campaigns turned in some 2 million signatures, enough to virtually guarantee each of them a spot on the ballot.

            But two of them got started far later than usual and had only three weeks to gather signatures. Initiative 1105 was given a green light by a Thurston County judge June 9 after a review of its ballot title. Initiative 1107 got started the following day. That measure, sponsored by the Washington Beverage Association and bankrolled by its national affiliate in Washington, D.C., turned in 395,000 signatures on the final day. I-1107 would roll back soda-pop, candy and bottled-water taxes imposed by the Legislature this year.

            Reports from the field indicated that both campaigns were spending in excess of $5 a signature as the deadline approached. Neither campaign would confirm the figures, however.

            In the case of the soda-pop rollback, the American Beverage Association put up $2.7 million. Its latest contributions were reported last week.

            But the liquor distributors have been making their contributions one drop at a time. The latest numbers showed up on the state Public Disclosure Commission website Tuesday.

            Two Liquor Distributors Behind Measure

            Initiative 1105 would junk the state liquor-store system, through which hard liquor has been sold in this state since the end of Prohibition. Instead, hard liquor would be sold in grocery stores and other retail outlets. The key difference between 1105 and the competing 1100 is that under the distributors’ measure, the distributors would be guaranteed a cut of the business. All liquor sales would have to go through wholesalers.

            Bankrolling the measure are two liquor distributors who have a large share of the business in states where liquor is sold in retail stores. They are Young’s Market Company of Los Angeles and the Odom Corp. of Bellevue, a strategic partner of Southern Wine & Sprits, the nation’s largest liquor wholesaler.

            Wednesday’s PDC filings show that Odom contributed $213,000 last week, for a total of $867,000. Young’s added $212,000, for a total $1,062,000.

            By comparison, the competing I-1100 raised $843,000 to make it to the ballot. That effort has been financed largely by the Issaquah-based Costco chain.

            Final spending reports for the signature gathering period have not been released.

            Big War-Chest to Oppose 1082

            Meanwhile, trial lawyers and labor interests are digging deep to oppose Initiative 1082, which would allow private competition for the state workers’ compensation system. Last Tuesday, the Building Industry Association of Washington announced that it would turn in signatures the following day, and the tap began flowing. Opponents added $170,000 to the campaign kitty by the end of the week. So far they have raised $321,000. Because that campaign didn’t have to circulate petitions, nearly all of that money is still in the bank.

            Could Set Records

            There’s been plenty of speculation that this year’s round of initiatives may prove the biggest-spending year ever for ballot measures in Washington state. But there’s still plenty of ground to cover. So far the initiative campaigns have raised $9 million. It’s a safe bet that most of the money is already gone – spent to pay off the signature gatherers.

            But it’s still a far cry from the $21 million spent during the entire election season in 2007, which the biggest-spending year for initiatives in the last decade. The bulk of the money that year was spent in an arms race between the insurance industry and the trial lawyers. The insurance industry spent $11.5 million to overturn a state law that allowed triple damages when insurance claims are wrongly denied. Trial lawyers spent $4 million and won.

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