Big Alcohol - The Beer Lobby

[Avalux]

The wholesale beer PAC - the 12th largest campaign contributor in the last election cycle, boasts it's ties to the GOP.

After reading this, I might just stop having a beer every now and then.

snip -

One of the most powerful special interest groups in Washington is the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA), a trade group consisting of some 2,900 independent beer wholesalers nationwide. The group boasts that it has members in every congressional district in the country. David Rehr, the association's president, is a member of Republican Majority Whip Tom DeLay's "kitchen cabinet" of lobbyist advisors that meets regularly to discuss GOP strategy. Bill Paxon, former chair of the NRCC, credited NBWA with helping to maintain the Republican majority in the House in 1996. NBWA gives generously to Republican congressional candidates making $2.5 million in PAC contributions to GOP candidates from 1995 to 1999, compared to under $600,000 to Democrats.

http://www.commoncause.org/publications/price/alcohol.htm


David Rehr, a former aide to retired Representative Vin Weber (R-MN), is a key reason for the prominence of the National Beer Wholesalers Association with Republicans. Hired away from the National Federation of Independent Business in 1992 to serve as NBWA vice president of government affairs, Rehr enlarged the group’s focus, which had been primarily on state governments, and gave it a high profile in Washington. Rehr also took note of the political inroads being made against the tobacco industry and began leading aggressive efforts in support of Republicans who he believed would be more likely to protect the wholesaler’s interests. Rehr, according to The Wall Street Journal, sought to distinguish beer from tobacco and crafted a new slogan for the beer wholesaler industry: “Family businesses delivering America’s beverage.” Rehr is close to Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX), and helped DeLay become House whip in 1995. He also has ties to top Republican Party operatives with whom he meets regularly to strategize on legislative business as well as House races.

http://www.bigalcohol.com/p_profile.php?player_id=24

[Bluzmann57]

1. Man oh man

My world is crumbling. The beer industry. How much of it was Coors? I'll bet a large percentage was. Well, the heck with it, I do a lot, boycotting Wal Mart, certain businesses that advertise on certain shows, but dammit! I am a beer drinker and am going to keep on drinking beer. Maybe if Kerry wins, they'll see the light(not light beer) and contribute to the good guys.

[ezekiel333]

8. Sadly, The Coors Family is FAR right.

Google "coors cnp" or "coors blackwell" (Blackwell is the fuck that started the purple heart band aids at the RNC.)

<http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.c.htm>

<http://www.corporations.org/coors/>


<http://www.namebase.org/sources/NT.html>


<http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Joseph_Coors>

[DarkPhenyx]

2. Try homebrewing instead.

it isn't that hard, adn you end up with a better beer in the end.

[phatkatt]

3. MICROBREWS!!!

MUCH better beer, anyway.

[Avalux]

4. agreed

home brew or micro brew. This David Rehr guy is one slimy dude if he's friends with Tom DeLay. Ewww.

[democratreformed]

5. I'm pretty sure I read that Anheuser-Busch support Kerry

or, at least, that some of their higher-ups have donated to him. Before Kerry, they supported Gephardt (St. Louis ties, you know).

[Avalux]

6. Those are the manufacturers -

this is the group of distributors. It's complicated but everything gets funneled through them and they're very powerful. Being the 12th largest lobbying group, they managed to have an FCC inquiry into the effects of alcohol advertising on adolescents halted.

[democratreformed]

7. Okay.

I should've got the distinction in the first place.