In the past five election cycles, beer, wine and spirits wholesalers have contributed $107 million to state political campaigns, the National Association of Wine Retailers (NAWR) says in a new report.
NAWR, of course, wants its members to be able to ship wine across state lines. Wholesalers don’t. They want to serve the retailers in their states.
“No other sector” of the bev/al industry has approached “their level of money spent,” NAWR says. Most of the giving is directed through state and national wholesaler trade association.
That’s an understatement. According to the report, wholesalers donated $107.8 million to state level candidates during the past five election cycles. Wineries and distillers donated $17 million, Brewers donated $23.8 million and retailers donated $9.5 million.
No. 1 donor in the past five election cycles was Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, donating $9.7 million. The rest of the top 12, all of whom donated $2 million or more to candidates over five cycles:
- Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois – $5.9 million
- Southern Wine & Spirits – $4 million
- Washington Beer & Wine Distributors Association – $3.7 million
- National Beer Wholesalers Association – $3.2 million
- John Liston Nau III, president/ceo, Silver Eagle Distributors, the largest AB-InBev distributor in the Lone Star State – $3.2 million
- Wholesale Beer & Wine Association of Ohio – $3.2 million
- Michigan Beer Wholesalers Association – $2.9 million
- Youngs Market Co. – $2.9 million
- Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association – $2.5 million
- Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas – $2.5 million
- Barry G. Andrews, founder/ceo of Andrews Distributing, a large MillerCoors distributor in Texas – $2.1 million.
Eight Associations – in California, Virginia, New York, Oregon, Texas and Indiana – all donated more than $1 million, as did Odom Southern Holdings, and Republic National Distributing Co.
According to the report, wholesalers donated 60% of their funds to Republicans. That’s to be expected, of course, because Republicans overwhelmingly dominate state houses. Unsurprisingly, incumbents got 76% of the donations.