Wine sale question nearing record on campaign spending

The battle between supermarkets and liquor sellers over an initiative that would allow wine to be sold in more food stores could shatter the $9 million spending record for ballot questions in Massachusetts.

Five weeks before voters decide on ballot question one, opposing committees had raised a combined $7.6 million through Sept. 30, according to records from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

``I'd be surprised if they don't break that record," said Pamela Wilmot, the executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. ``It's a slugfest between two industries. The liquor dealers and wholesalers want to maintain a monopoly on wine sales, and grocery stores are fighting for their bottom line."

The media battle over the ballot question has been white hot, with the two sides regularly trading jabs over the accuracy of their barrage of ads. One such jab proved false yesterday. A lawyer representing the opponents of the ballot question, primarily liquor wholesalers and package stores, claimed Kim Hinden-McDonald , the narrator of an ad supporting the ballot question, was never the deputy director of the state's consumer affairs office, as she claimed in the ad.

The consumer affairs office confirmed yesterday that Hinden-McDonald did serve in that position from December 1995 until September 1999. Justine Griffin , a spokeswoman for the liquor wholesalers and package stores, refused to acknowledge the error, saying the ad was misleading on several fronts and should be pulled.

The $9 million record for spending on a ballot question was set in 1988 when voters overwhelmingly defeated an initiative that would have closed nuclear power plants.

The committees lobbying on opposite sides of the wine-in-stores issue had spent almost $5 million through Sept. 30, received another $344,000 in in-kind donations, and racked up almost $1.3 million in debt, according to campaign finance reports.

Pushing for the initiative, the Massachusetts Food Association has spent $3.1 million of the $4.5 million it had raised through Sept. 30 . The Vote No On One Committee had spent $1.6 million of its $3 million war chest.

Supermarkets argue that consumers deserve the choice to buy wine where they purchase food. Package stores contend that the initiative would add almost 3,000 new liquor licenses without increasing funding to combat drunken driving and underage drinking.

Globe staff writer Bruce Mohl contributed to this report.