Follow The Money: Alcohol Campaign Contributions the Last Election Cycle

[Erik Owens]

As I attempt to keep abreast of the ever-evolving alcohol regulatory system, I try never to forget that the rules and regulations that we all follow are born of politics. Politics is simple: One set of interests battles to have their desires placed above another set of interests.

The tools deployed to accomplish this are money and lobbying.

I want to take a final look at the money that was deployed by alcohol industry interests during the just-completed election cycle (2023-2024). I want to demonstrate where the money is coming from and where it is going. To do this, I use FollowTheMoney.org, a very useful database operated by OpenSecrets, which was created when The National Institute on Money in Politics and The Center for Responsive Politics combined forces to track campaign contributions and lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels.

To look at money used by the alcohol industry to sway lawmakers, I’m looking today at JUST campaign contributions delivered to lawmakers at the state level, not the federal government. I do this because 99% of the laws governing alcohol sales and distribution are generated in the states. Importantly, the numbers and figures below do not represent the totality of campaign contributions for the past two years. There remain about 15% of reports to be included in the FollowTheMoney database. However, the 85% of the spending reports we have are more than sufficient to show the trends.

So…let’s follow the money.

https://tomwark.substack.com/p/follow-the-money-alcohol-campaign-contributions