Liquor And Liars
Round 2

Coming as no surprise, our three liquor lovers, Ed Bell, Dr. Barry Gordon and John Tuck were able to get the signatures needed to have the liquor store referendum on the ballot for the November election. So far they have spent $10,808.00. That was just for the petition drive. This round, they didn't waste their time trying to get the signatures themselves, they hired a high priced PR firm to do their dirty work. At a cost of $10,668.00, Akermann Public Relations managed their county wide mail out to get their signatures.

Each of the three liquor lovers contributed $4,500.00 each to their cause to get the ball rolling. Click Here For Financial Statement. Two years ago in their failed drive to bring liquor stores to our communities, they spent $24,000.00 of their own money just on advertising. So in two years they have donated $37,500.00 to the cause and all because they want to help the community. Right. The only people they plan to help out is themselves. The name of their organization is "Citizens For A Better Loudon County." They should have called it "Citizens To Make Ed Bell, Dr. Barry Gordon and John Tuck A Lot Of Money." But honesty isn't a part of their program.

Who Really Wants Liquor Stores In Loudon County?

As we know, the liquor lovers did direct mail to get their petition signatures. The prepaid postage post cards were mailed all over the county and those wanting to sign the petition would do so and mail the card back to a Lenoir City post office box. After the cards were returned to the liquor lovers they were then turned over to the Loudon County Election Commission for verification. Below is a list of where the signatures for the county referendum came from.

District 1, Loudon, 191signatures.
District 3, Greenback and Glendale, 6 signatures.
District 4, Philadelphia and Davis, 29 signatures.
District 5, Eaton and Browder, 17 signatures.
District 6, Highland Park, 8 signatures.
District 7, Tellico Village, 1425 signatures.

District 2 is Lenoir City which will be holding their own referendum on the liquor store question. More on that later.

It's pretty obvious where the signatures came from. 85% of the signature cards returned to the election commission were from Tellico Village. Problem is even if the referendum does pass county wide, our three liquor lovers still can't put their liquor store in the village. The law wouldn't allow it.

Democracy and majority rule are the American way. However it is incumbent that the voters are well educated on the facts of any question or candidate before them. That being the case, I hope to present the facts of the liquor store referendum to the voters over the next few weeks.  

BACK
9/8/08