Bills Regulating Wine, Liquor Stores Fail : Legislature: Two measures aimed to curb ‘misery market’ sales in L.A.’s inner city. Heavy lobbying pressure shuts them off in Assembly committee.

Two bills aimed at reducing public drunkenness in inner-city sections of Los Angeles died Tuesday amid pressure from the Capitol’s wine and beer lobby.

One bill would have limited the availability of fortified wines by restricting their sale to liquor stores. As it is, high-alcohol wines such as Thunderbird and Cisco can be sold by any corner grocery that has a beer and wine license. The second measure would have limited the number of liquor stores in inner-city neighborhoods.

Both measures failed to clear their first hurdle, the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. The fortified wine bill failed 7-5 with three not voting, while the liquor store bill vote was 6-6 with three not voting. Nine votes were needed for passage out of the committee.

Assemblyman Louis Caldera, a freshman Democrat from Los Angeles, called the death of his fortified wine legislation an “eye-opener” and blamed it on “pressure by special interests.”

His bill sought to target the so-called misery market in which high-profit concoctions sell for $2 a pint. Made with various types of fruit and high in sugar, fortified wines contain as much as 20% alcohol, about twice the kick of table wine.

“(Ethnic) minority legislators had no hesitation supporting this legislation because they know how destructive alcohol has been to that community, and how highly targeted that market is for the liquor industry,” Caldera said.

The other bill, by Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), sought to make it easier for authorities to revoke licenses at problem liquor stores, and would have limited the number of liquor stores in cities to one for every 2,500 residents.

As it is, Archie-Hudson said, a third of Los Angeles County’s 1,375 liquor stores are in South-Central Los Angeles. The bill had the Los Angeles City Council’s endorsement. Councilwoman Rita Walters traveled to the Capitol to back the bill, calling it a “step toward ridding our community of blight.”

Archie-Hudson said her bill’s failure may prompt renewed effort by Los Angeles city officials to pass an ordinance restricting liquor stores in poor neighborhoods.

The bills failed despite support from the committee chair, Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood). Turning to wine and beer industry lobbyists who opposed Caldera’s measure on fortified wine, Tucker said: “I challenge you to go to any white middle-class neighborhood and find this crap.”

Tucker vowed to pursue his own legislation to counter liquor industry practices that target poor and minority areas.

Caldera’s bill was opposed by the Wine Institute, the California Grocers Assn., Miller Brewing, Coors, and Anheuser-Busch. In 1992, they spent a combined $1.5 million on lobbying and campaign donations in California.

E & J Gallo Winery of Modesto did not come out against the measure, but is among the largest producers of fortified wine with its brands Thunderbird and Night Train Express. Gallo spent $509,000 on lobbying and campaign donations in 1992.

Just before the vote, Assemblyman Dan Hauser, a North Coast Democrat who estimates that his district includes half the wineries in the state, said, “I need to know where the Wine Institute is on this.”

Wine Institute lobbyist Michael Falasco, who was sitting in the audience, responded that his trade group opposed it, even though Caldera had restricted its provisions solely to Los Angeles.

Hauser had supported the bill when it came up for a preliminary vote two weeks earlier. This time, however, the Arcata lawmaker withheld his support, and the bill fell two votes short of the needed nine-vote majority.

Caldera said he was surprised at Hauser’s switch, but reserved his anger for Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont), a likely candidate for state schools superintendent. Eastin did not vote, explaining she opposed Caldera’s bill because it also would require that malt liquor, which has a higher alcohol content than beer, also be sold exclusively in liquor stores.

Caldera called Eastin’s reasoning a “pretext” and said her decision to not support the bill was “a gutless move for someone who wants to be superintendent of public instruction.”

In an interview, Wine Institute President John De Luca defended the right of companies to produce fortified wine and of consumers to buy it at convenience stores. “We’re still an entrepreneurial society,” De Luca said. “It is a licensed and legal product.”

While manufacturers do not release details about their profits on specific products, fortified wine represents 2.5% of the 375 million gallons of California wine sold annually, according to the Wine Institute. Based on that estimate, California produces roughly 9.3 million gallons of fortified wine worth roughly $150 million.