Alabama Homebrew Legislation 2013

Williams 728
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Emails have been sent to the rules committee and to every member of the senate that I can find an email for. Calls will have to be done after work. Currently the only responses I have received are from Cam Ward, who we know is on our side, and Bryan Taylor who sent the canned 'I get a lot of email, don't have time to respond but I do read them' response.
 
The word we are hearing is that the calls are getting through. We had a friend send to his Statewide distribution list of 50k people. We have an action alert e-mail that has gone out from the AHA and Beer Advocate.

Some of the people that you speak to when you make these calls may not sound happy. They are used to taking a handful of calls a day. They aren't used to getting flooded. Keep the calls coming, if they are less than cordial to you, don't return any attitude! Be polite, let them know that this issue is important to you and that you want to be sure your ELECTED representatives know you opinion.

Sue Spears, the Rules Clerk, is a super nice lady. She won't mind taking your call (334)242-7853. If you can only make 1 call, that's the one to make.

It is still perfectly fine to continue to call all the Rules Committee members as well as your Senator however. That is the preferred method. Even if they tell you to only call Sue, call them back tomorrow! :mug:
 
Oh yeah - I forgot to say:

THANK YOU to all of you guys that are making these calls and sending these e-mails! Keep it up, let's get it done this year.
 
Huff360 said:
The word we are hearing is that the calls are getting through. We had a friend send to his Statewide distribution list of 50k people. We have an action alert e-mail that has gone out from the AHA and Beer Advocate.

Some of the people that you speak to when you make these calls may not sound happy. They are used to taking a handful of calls a day. They aren't used to getting flooded. Keep the calls coming, if they are less than cordial to you, don't return any attitude! Be polite, let them know that this issue is important to you and that you want to be sure your ELECTED representatives know you opinion.

Sue Spears, the Rules Clerk, is a super nice lady. She won't mind taking your call (334)242-7853. If you can only make 1 call, that's the one to make.

It is still perfectly fine to continue to call all the Rules Committee members as well as your Senator however. That is the preferred method. Even if they tell you to only call Sue, call them back tomorrow! :mug:
Click to expand...

Man, I hope that the calls ARE getting through. I'll call the rules committe + president pro tem again tomorrow, as well as email them all again.
 
Just made some calls.

I got an aid in my Senator's office. (Pittman, who btw has voted no or passed on alcohol bills.) The guy that answered the phone said that he had received a lot of calls on HB9, would add my name to the list and would pass it on when the Senator came in tomorrow.

Keep after it!
 
Made all my calls today. Got a few irritated responses from irritable assistants but most were very nice. The one at Beason's office was rather bewildered but polite nonetheless.
 
day_trippr said:
I suspect it's very common for state legislative rules to punt any business that isn't concluded successfully at the end of the session and start over again with the next session.

To be honest, I have no idea where the idea came from, or why...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I was thinking this through some more and I guessed that it is to reduce backlog, i.e. if there are more bills than can be sorted out in a year keeping them going through next year will potentially result in that overspill just piling up and them eventually ending up reviewing bills from 2-3 years ago. Of coarse this might not be the case as if the same bills weren't going through year after year they probably could review more new bills each year... logic it doesn't always work :D
 
It is also a great way to ensure that the legislators have a nice revenue stream from the lobbyist who didn't get his bill through last year.
 
Which should be illegal in it's own right. Frankly I think they should have to vote on all bills presented. I'm fine with them having the raise... I just think they should have to actually DO their job.
 
Accidic said:
Which should be illegal in it's own right. Frankly I think they should have to vote on all bills presented. I'm fine with them having the raise... I just think they should have to actually DO their job.
Click to expand...

Agreed. All the half days, all the watsed hours.. they drive me nuts.

Lobbying should be illegal. In other countries, this is called bribery. Of course, that would require the legislators to vote to make it illegal, and that will happen roughly after the third time that Hell freezes over.
 
Isn't there a way to push through a law like that through petition and vote in the general election by the people without going through the House & Senate? I know this is allowed in some states.
 
I don't think that Alabama allows that. Honestly, I'm not in favor of that, anyway; petition to law toes the line of mob rule.
 
Petition to ballot then vote (on ballot) to law. Supposedly this is supposed to be the point of our representatives anyway. Everyone has the chance to vote so while it may be "mob rule," the entire mob is allowed to participate.
 
The clerks are all saying that they have received a lot of calls, and they do pass the tally along to the Senators, so keep the calls going. The point we are trying to make now is that there are enough of us to make the clerks lives miserable with all the calls.

Think of it as our own way to filibuster! It may not do any good, but at this point it's the only chance we have.



They are in session today. It's been a log jam of folks with their panties in a wad. Calls for cloture, bills read at length, filibusters, stalling tactics, and in general a bunch of attempts to pull fast ones on each other and ignore the way the process should go. So it's par for the course!
 
Correct.

The word on the street is two days this week, two days next week, then a week off and the final day on May 20.

This is likely an attempt to limit the possibility of bills that are able to be pocket veto'd down to only those that are passed on the 20th. The rest of the bills would have to expire into law without the Gov. signing them before the session closes.
 
Made a few calls today so far. Hearing a lot more irritation today than I did yesterday.

Hopefully, that's a good thing.
 
homebrewdad said:
Made a few calls today so far. Hearing a lot more irritation today than I did yesterday.

Hopefully, that's a good thing.
Click to expand...


Hi, this is Jim. I'd like to let Senator X know that if they will get HB9 to the floor we can all stop calling you daily and wasting your time! I'm sure you'd like that wouldn't you? How about slipping him a post-it that says "Please get these beer guys off my back!" Thanks!



Also - When you call these clerks, so of them have no interest in talking, but some of them don't mind a brief conversation. Feel free to try to engage them if you'd like. Some people report of chats they've had. Football, dead trees, storms, church, kinfolk, etc.
 
Calls complete for today. It seems as if you can tell the assistants who either don't support the idea of the bill or perhaps they're assistants for Senators who don't. They're a bit sharp and abrupt. Some were exceptionally nice and a few even knew what the bill was about (and were still nice to boot!). :) Even if it looks dire, it's not over yet.
 
One of the local guys asked "Do you mind if I send about 1000 other folks your way?"

She (Sue) said "Well, I've had about that many already. Send them on."
 
Has anyone received a direct response to an email from Trip Pittman?

Every time I get this it pisses me off more and more.

Thank you so much for your email. I appreciate your taking the time to contact me.
I read every e-mail I receive, and I do my best to reply to
as many as possible. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time in the day to reply
to all of them.
Your opinion is important to me, and you can rest assured that I will
give your e-mail the serious consideration it deserves.
Best Regards,
Trip
 
Nope. Sorry Tate.

@kombat, I think he thought I meant the petition would make it's way into law. I wasn't overly clear on it being required as a vote by the voters. There should be no issue with that as technically that is what we're doing with the representatives already. The only real downside there is there are a lot of stupid people voting... But to be fair, Alvin Holmes informed us once that Chivas Regal was certified healthy by the government so... Granted, I'm not on his case after this year but it's still a bit of a silly comment.
 
I'm not an AL resident but as a homebrewer I am certainly anxious to see your state join the other 49 and make this great pursuit a legal one. If for some reason your senate does not pass this legislation in the current term, what is the odds of making the issue a referendum to take directly to the voters? We often have these on our ballots for election day and some garner wide and sweeping support at a grass roots level.

Just a thought. Hope you get satisfaction in your pursuit of a legal homebrew! Good luck from SC.
 
catdaddy66 said:
I'm not an AL resident but as a homebrewer I am certainly anxious to see your state join the other 49 and make this great pursuit a legal one. If for some reason your senate does not pass this legislation in the current term, what is the odds of making the issue a referendum to take directly to the voters?
Click to expand...

Slim to none. There aren't a ton of homebrewers in Alabama to begin with; certainly not enough to get a referendum on the ballot.
 
Emails sent and Tweets sent for the first time today. Calls will come in a bit...got to get a little work done. Hopefully the huge lack of responses means they are so inundated with email and calls that they don't have time to do anything else but think about HB9.
 
Please call and help us out !!

What is legal for you to do in your state is not legal for me to do in mine.

Call Sue Spears (334)242-7853, ask that HB9- the homebrew bill be put on the SOC (Special Order Calendar) - we only have 4 legislative days left.

Thanks to all.
 

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