Is SOMEONE’S Potomac Fever screwing over NC’s microbrewers?
A Greensboro TV station ran a report about a local restauranteur frustrated about not being able to sell the beer he, himself, brews. State law requires wholesalers to be inserted into those transactions as middlemen.
Earlier we posted about efforts by craft brewers to get the General Assembly to change those laws. While those efforts were underway, beer wholesalers were pouring money into the campaign treasuries of now-US Senate nominee Thom Tillis and several of his state House allies. And surprise, surprise — the effort to loosen the wholesalers’ stranglehold got stymied in the House.
What makes all of that even more surprising is that the state is making the development of a craft brewery industry in North Carolina a centerpiece of its economic development strategy.
What surely makes things more painful for folks like this Greensboro restauranteur is the fact that Tillis is skipping out on the General Assembly session this week to attend fundraisers organized by the beer wholesalers’ national lobbying network.
On the face of it, this is a no-brainer. Get government out of the way and let the market work its magic in this business. Offering protection to the interests of these wholesalers while pocketing oodles of cash from them stinks to high heaven and corrupts the GOP’s ability to offer itself up as a credible alternative to the statist, autocratic methods of the Democrat Party.
Lovely. This problem pre-existed Tillis however. But that doesn’t make it right. A brewer in my area sells there own stuff… has something to do with quantity, I think, and they do go through a wholesaler for at least part of the business. The laws are a mess.
Thom Tilli$ – the best politician whom $pecial intere$t money can buy.
What a stinking embarrassment for the GOP!
So, please explain to me why I should vote for Tillis.
Hagan
Why? One is as bad as the other, and at least Hagan does not poison the GOP caucus.
Tillis can show us in the short session a reason to vote for him. He could move the Common Core repeal bill or the Renewable Energy Mandate repeal bill, but I suspect he won’t. He has already given us a huge reason in the short session NOT to vote for him. and that is his despicable political hit on respected conservative legislator Robert Brawley.
“at least Hagan doesn’t” – I think you are a demo-troll. At least Hagan whatever. Hagan is Harry Reid. Take two fingers and put them around your nose and vote for Tillis. We lost the primary, so we have to suck it up and do what we need to get the senate.
I could happily have voted for any of the GOP primary contenders EXCEPT Tillis. I could perhaps have held my nose for Tillis if he had tried to unify the party by working with conservatives on policy. Instead the arrogant and vindictive Tillis is tearing the party apart. He made an understatement when he told that radio interview after the primary that he did not intend to do anything to try to mend fences with conservatives.
Tillis may have an R penciled in beside his name but he has a D in his heart.
This looks to be a pretty clear-cut issue – government has no business in this business. That that is not Tillis’s (or any of these other guy’s) clear, straightforward position, and one they arent keen on advancing, just tells volumes.
There’s no reason to vote for this guy that I can see – the fact that he doesnt technically have a (D) next to his name is, imho, irrelevant.