Shamelessness in the Legislature

Consumers, disconsolate over the sellout of the California Legislature to the Seagram’s lobby, can take heart. Gov. George Deukmejian is committed to the marketplace, to competition, and there is every reason for him to veto this shameless concession to special-interest money.

“This bill makes competition a crime,” Assemblyman Don Sebastiani (R-Sonoma), who knows something himself about the wine marketplace, said. “It is simply an attempt to restrict competition and thereby maintain high prices,” Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp had commented earlier.

The legislation would grant exclusive distribution monopolies on certain imported wines, just as another bill passed several years ago granted monopolies to imported-liquor distributors. Next inline, and barely defeated this year, is legislation to grant the same munificence to beer distributors. The big bucks that these measures generate for the privileged few are being shared with cooperative legislators, fattening campaign funds and lubricating the lawmakers for the next assault of the special interests.

Much was made in this latest scandal of the importance of the legislation to California producers. That is nonsense. If Napa brut can’t be priced competitively with Mumm’s Cordon Rouge, to say nothing of Dom Perignon, it is time for the Golden state to leave champagne to Champagne. This is not a case of assuring a fair marketplace but rather of destroying the marketplace. That is why the state can rely on the governor’s veto.