Liquor companies' voter drive studied

By KELLY RYAN and LEONORA LaPETER

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 1, 2000

TAMPA -- Bar manager Reuben E. Sesebo said about 100 people showed up in September for a sweet promotion: Show your voter identification card or register to vote and get a small bottle of Hennessy V.S.O.P cognac.

Sesebo said it would have been easy for customers to register to vote more than once to get several $9.50 bottles for free. But he isn't sure whether that happened at his Apollo South bar, which serves an "urban contemporary" crowd of mostly minorities.

Now, the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is investigating the promotion, sponsored by Hennessy and liquor distributors, and how many people may have registered to vote more than once. They have found at least one: a felon who told investigators that he never intended to vote. He said he just wanted free liquor.

A lawyer representing the New York company that sponsored the promotion, Schieffelin & Somerset, said alcohol wasn't traded for registrations.

"What company would offer alcohol in return for registrations?" said Brian Albritton, a Tampa lawyer representing the national liquor distributor. "It's crazy. This was a voting registration drive done in tandem with tasting. A national forum was used. It was a national program to get out the vote."

The "Power of Privilege" campaign in several cities was designed to boost the number of African-American voters, according to a release issued by Schieffelin in September.

Florida statutes bar voter registration groups from doing anything that "would lead the applicant to believe that a decision to register or not to register has any bearing on the availability of services or benefits."

The promotion was held at several Tampa bars. Liquor was provided at at least one bar through Southern Wine and Spirits distributors. The company is politically active, making $80,000 in contributions to Democrats running for federal office and $50,000 to Republicans in the past two years. The company has also contributed heavily in state races.

John Pfingsten, a salesman for Southern Wine, said all he did was bring liquor to one of the bars and played no other role in the registration drive.

The State Attorney's Office began investigating the campaign after an elections clerk noticed two suspicious voter registration forms from Randall Craig Milliner Sr. On one he registered using that name; another person at the same address registered using Bobby Milliner.

Randall (or Randal) Milliner, 43, was purged from the voter rolls in September 1999 because he is a felon. He did not vote in the general election.

"The bigger issue is the liquor distributor trying to get people to vote by giving them a bottle of liquor," said Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Pam Iorio.

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett and staff writer Sydney P. Freedberg contributed to this report.

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