Confusion over DeSoto’s beer and wine referendum

by Brian Allen of TODAY Newspapers

Contentious elections have a way of crossing city lines.

DeSoto's beer and wine referendum got more volatile over the weekend before the Nov. 6 vote, thanks to a letter left over from the 2005 Lancaster liquor effort.

During the 2005 campaign to allow packaged liquor sales in Lancaster, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price wrote a letter in opposition.

Over the Nov. 2 weekend, several DeSoto residents received the same letter. Price has not taken a stance on the DeSoto beer/wine issue and a lot of DeSoto residents may have been confused.

One who wasn't is Daphne Fain, who lives in DeSoto and happens to be Price's chief of staff.

She alerted the commissioner, who promptly released a statement that he had nothing to do with the mailing of this letter.

Kenzie Moore, treasurer for the political action committee attempting to bring beer and wine sales to DeSoto, spent much of his weekend doing damage control.

“Commissioner Price was very quick to get the word out that he was not involved in this mailing and did not pay for it,” Moore said. “That letter was from 2005 and he did not write it in reference to this election. It was a sneaky thing to do, but things like that always happen at the last minute. Their hope is that people won't have a chance to respond to it. But we have been able to get in contact with a lot of people and tell them what's happening. We did another voicemail and a mailing after this letter went out.”

Moore is aware the potential for beer and wine sales in DeSoto is making headlines and enemies throughout the area.

“There are those in Duncanville and in our own community that are trying to make this election about something it's really not about,” he said. “It's not an election about alcohol. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.”

Former Duncanville City Councilman Homer Fincannon, who was originally a proponent of beer and wine sales in his city, has changed his stance.

Fincannon has formed a political action committee “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” named after a Johnny Cash song referencing binge drinking. He is opposed to both beer and wine sales in DeSoto and a Duncanville ballot proposal to do away with the “unicard” needed to purchase drinks in restaurants.

Michael Hurtt, former DeSoto mayor and one of the organizers of the pro-beer and wine sales effort, said it was about helping local business owners. He declined to comment on the out-of-context letter and how it may have impacted the election.

“That's up to the ethics commission,” he said, and did acknowledge that his PAC is looking into filing a complaint.

“The will of the voters will be heard,” he said. “We're going to do whatever we can to make the community as good as we can, and we've always said that.”