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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Dallas Morning News
May 27--AUSTIN, Texas--It seemed like a simple idea: allow Texans to buy wine directly over the Internet.
In-state wineries promoted the idea. California vineyards were all for it. And independent surveys found support among many Texas wine drinkers.
But as lawmakers prepare to leave Austin this week, supporters of unfettered on-line wine sales have failed -- defeated by a handful of Texas wholesalers whose blueprint to kill the bill was developed long before legislators came to town.
"I'm not surprised at all," said veteran lobbyist Brad Shields, who has been on the opposite side of wholesalers in the past but was not involved in liquor issues this session. "Historically, they have been awesome."
The battle over Internet wine sales, which played out in public hearings and behind the scenes, offers a case study of how a proposal can draw a formidable thicket of obstacles, competing interests and big-money opposition.
Over the last five months, the bill was debated, killed, resurrected, rewritten and finally passed in a form that is a thin shadow of its former self.
It's the story of how a bill does not become law.
For Texas and California vineyards wanting to lift the ban on Internet wine sales, the chief opposition came in the form of "Butch" Sparks, a 57-year-old veteran lobbyist for the influential liquor wholesalers.
Short, round and silver-haired, Mr. Sparks -- Robert at birth -- has long been a fixture at the Capitol. He has spent nearly three decades as an indefatigable defender of the state's arcane liquor laws, in which his clients control the distribution from producer to retailer of virtually all wine and distilled spirits...
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