It’s not surprising that Rep. David Trone, a Maryland Democrat who made a fortune in the liquor store business before turning to politics, is spending big on his own reelection bid. After all, he has done so before.
But it’s notable that the founder and co-owner of Total Wine & More is simultaneously pouring big money into a Colorado ballot measure more than 1,500 miles away.
The lawmaker from Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, and his brother Robert, who co-owns Total Wine & More, have spent more than $2.6 million in support of Colorado’s Initiative 96, per filings from the secretary of state’s office.
The proposal before Centennial State voters on Nov. 8 would eventually allow liquor retailers to operate an unlimited number of locations in Colorado. Total Wine & More has three stores in Colorado, which is the maximum now allowed.
Initiative 96 is among three Colorado ballot measures this fall aimed at loosening restrictions on state liquor sales. One Colorado initiative would allow grocery stores to sell wine while another would permit third-party delivery companies to deliver alcohol.
Not surprisingly, the liquor-related ballot initiatives have drawn fierce resistance from Colorado liquor store owners. They contend the proposed changes to state law threaten the livelihoods of the more than 1,600 small liquor businesses in Colorado. Mom-and-pop establishments would now have to go up against industry big boys, including grocery stores, many of which are owned by large, publicly traded companies. National liquor corporations, too: Total Wine & More, for instance, has 243 stores in 27 states.
Supporters of Initiative 96, such as the Trones, contend it will create a more level playing field in Colorado for alcohol sellers.
“Creating parity and an orderly expansion for all businesses will foster competition, create jobs, increase selection and consumer choice, and lower costs for Coloradans,” the initiative reads.
Under current law, a person or business in Colorado can hold only three licenses for retail liquor stores at once. Initiative 96 would immediately raise the limit to eight, then to 19 by 2032, and remove the limit entirely by 2037.
Tough race closer to home
Trone, meanwhile, faces a potentially tough political fight to hold his House seat. Trone’s 6th District seat has been redrawn to make it more competitive after Maryland Democrats had tried to engineer a gerrymandered map that would have given the party huge political advantages in seven of the Old Line State’s eight House districts.
But a state court struck down that map, and lawmakers had to readjust some lines. Trone’s current district in 2020 voted for President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump 60.6% to 37.5%. The soon-to-evaporate district includes a significant chunk of Democratic-heavy Montgomery County, just outside of Washington, D.C. The incoming version, covering western Maryland and the northwestern exurbs of Washington, has a smaller slice of Montgomery County, and in 2020, it would have backed Biden over Trump by a narrower 53.9% to 44.1%.
The new 6th District further includes a swath of conservative counties nestled in the mountainous western Maryland Panhandle between West Virginia to the south and western Pennsylvania across the Mason-Dixon line to the north.
In November, Trone will face Republican nominee Neil Parrott, a state delegate. Trone, whose congressional campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner, in 2020 beat Parrott 59% to 39%.
But with the new district lines, Trone isn’t taking any chances. The congressman this year has already spent more than $12.5 million of his own money. And in the 2018 race, when the House seat was open, Trone spent more than $10 million to capture the crucial Democratic nomination.
Back in 2016, Trone spent more than $13 million of his own money in the open-seat Democratic primary for Maryland’s 8th District, with a population base largely in Montgomery County but stretching to more rural areas along the Pennsylvania state line. Despite the big spending that year, Trone, a political rookie, lost to now-Rep. Jamie Raskin, finishing about 8,000 votes behind his future House Democratic colleague.
All of this makes Trone’s Colorado ballot measure look like a mere pittance — though, in trying to open up the state liquor market out west, it’s likely a worthy investment.
