Ballot measure on liquor sales in supermarkets too close to call
Supermarkets, frustrated with restrictions that limit them to three liquor licenses statewide, are pushing Question 1, which would allow cities and towns to issue new licenses for wine at food stores. Fearing the measure would take business away from them, package stores, liquor wholesalers, and beer distributors have suggested that passage would lead to more underage drinking and drunken-driving fatalities.
A poll taken Nov. 1-2 by State House News Service indicated the race is too close to call. By Nov. 1, the two sides spent more than the 1988 record of $9.1 million for a ballot question, about $11.5 million so far.
The proposed law would allow communities to issue five such licenses. Communities with more than 5,000 residents could also issue one license for each additional 5,000 residents. Boston could issue 121.
Michele Gillen, a Needham mother of two, said yesterday that she is voting yes, because buying wine at the supermarket would be convenient. "I don't have time to go to six different stores," she said.
Ron Bersani, whose granddaughter was killed by a drunk driver, said more liquor licenses would lead to more drinking problems. He warned that supermarkets would return to voters seeking to sell beer.
Other key ballot measures include Question 3, which would allow home-based child-care workers to form a union and negotiate for rights and state subsidies. Question 2 proposes changing voting laws so candidates can run as the designated choice of multiple political parties.
Voters in all or part of 139 communities, including Boston, will vote on a non binding question that asks whether the local state representative should support a resolution calling for an immediate end to the war in Iraq.
BRUCE MOHL 
