The primary reason that anti shipping legislation did not get anywhere in the FLA legislature this year is that Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff used her position to prevent the distributors from pushing through a bad bill.
As many of you know, I solicited campaign contributions for her last summer for her 2008 re-election bid, which she obviously won. I expect her to be a strong ally once again next year and hopefully for quite a few years after that.
With the recent cabinet shakeup caused by Crist running for Senate, the current senate president is running for CFO, leaving his seat vacant. That is Bogdanoff’s district and she will be running for that seat. If she wins, she will be in a position to keep up the shipping fight on the side of consumers. If she loses, we will be in trouble, as this has been viewed in the legislature as her fight for the last several years.
I would like to see if we can come up with a reasonable amount of money to contribute to her campaign. If you contributed last year, thanks again for your help. It really made an impression with her. If you did not contribute last year, please consider doing so this year.
I know we are in tough economic times, but we all still buy wine. I am asking that you consider what you can do to help keep our shipping freedoms.
I am primarily asking for Floridians to contribute, since we have the most direct interest here. But I would welcome any contributions by any wineries or retailers that have an interest in keeping Florida as an open market. Anybody that wants to contribute is free to do so. The maximum is $500 per per individual or company.
And if you have any friends down here that you know also ship in wine, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could ask them for support. Every bit helps and the more people that contribute, the more she will see how important it is to keep up her fight for us.
The checks need to be made payable to Ellyn Bogdanoff for Senate.
Please feel free to either post here or send me a PM with any questions.
Thank you.