There’s an AP story over at Walworth County Today entitled, Rep. Wynn pushes for earlier alcohol sales as a convenience to tailgaters.
Rep. Evan Wynn is the freshman assemblyman representing the 43rd Assembly District, a district that includes Whitewater.
I’m opposed to most restrictions on alcohol, but it’s easy to see that this is an odd proposal for a freshman legislator: to propose moving the time for off-premises alcohol sales to 6 a.m. (from 8 a.m. presently). A bill like this would have better come as a lesser concern of tenured legislator with a long record of commitment to other issues.
One can guess that the AP thinks so, too, and that’s why the story went out on their news wire across the Midwest. They likely didn’t run the story because they thought it was a good idea, but rather because it was an unusual one.
Looking at online comments to the proposal at newspapers’ websites, support and opposition seem about evenly split.
There’s a gap, though, between how commenters respond to the proposal. Supporters see this as a matter-of-fact convenience for third-shift workers. Opponents, though, simply ridicule the proposal, considering it a waste of legislative resources and an enticement to over-drinking. The greater intensity — leveled as sarcasm — seems to rest with opposition to the idea.
(This makes sense — the number who would avail themselves of this proposal is far smaller than the number of people who will comment without any likelihood of using a more generous opportunity for purchasing.)
On the merits, I think the change in time is slight and innocuous.
It’s puzzling, though, that a freshman legislator would sponsor this proposal, when it should be obvious it would draw exactly the kind of opposition that it has drawn. It’s one thing to sponsor an idea some dislike — but another for a new legislator to sponsor an idea that many will consider unserious.