EP-189 Peter Franchot, Maryland Comptroller

Today’s guest is a first for GBH - we’re speaking with a state wide,
publicly elected political figure - who finds himself at the center of a
political movement working to change the laws for Virginia’s small craft
brewers.

It’s no accident that he ended up in this movement - states all over the
union have been reinventing their beer laws to make way for new business
models necessary to support small craft brewer, especially when it comes to
own-premise taproom models, self-distribution, and franchise rights with
wholesalers. Most states have incrementally improved these laws over time,
attempting to balance the needs of federally mandated wholesale tier, meant
to prevent monopolies, and the beds of consumers and brewers, and more
recently, the retail voice has been finding its way into these discussions
as well. But a few states, like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Maryland, have
been especially slow to evolve. In these states, the multi-generational
wealth of wholesalers, backed by the largest brewing conglomerates in the
world, have held an immense amount of influence over politicians. And
progress in those states beer laws has been all but static.

Peter Franchot, the state’s elected comptroller, is very well known and
depending on your view of things, he’s either a uniquely divisive figure in
Maryland politics, or he’s uniquely talented at uniting folks around an
issue. His role as comptroller is to structure the states financial agenda,
which includes tax incentives for industry, and creating fairness is its
economic systems, among many other related things. Unlike most states,
Maryland doesn’t appoint their comptroller through the governor’s office,
but instead elects the comptroller directly. And that means two important
things - 1. it enables the voters to compartmentalism their financial
interests from the rest of their political agendas - and 2. it protects
that office from political influence to a degree, because the comptroller
is beholden to the voters, not the governor.

For Franchot - that can sometimes put him at odds with his own party’s
agenda when they’re in power. And it can sometimes put him in the position
of courting the factor of a republican governor when he wants to get
something done, and that works against the democratic machine. And he seems
to relish in it.

And he keeps getting re-elected - with barely any contention. One of the
ways he maintains that powerful role is through the campaigns he initiates
that tend to be popular, perhaps even populist agendas. He’s gone after
common sense school reforms, he fought against sot machines infiltrating
his state, and most recently he’s saddled atop the rapid growth in craft
beer as a way to rally his voters around something they want to see more
of, and against the special interests it threatens. And he’s riding that
saddle to electoral victory over and over again, but so far, doesn’t have a
victory to show for it on behalf of he brewers themselves.

He’s had remarkable success using the uncommon leverage of his office and
its popularity to ram through big changes that most states are required to
piece-meal over time. He makes a lot of enemies along the way, and more
than a few friends, and it remains to be seen wether that’s good for craft
beer legislation, or if this might be one battle he takes to the teeth of
big beer money and power, and perhaps walks away wounded for the effort.

It remains to be seen - and there are small brewers I spoke with on its
sides of that strategy. Some are rallying behind the effort while others
fear it may hinder their progress at the expense of Franchot having a
self-serving campaign that keeps him popular even if he fails. Most would
be happy with even a small win. But Franchot, never a meek contender, only
seems interested in making his cause bigger in the meantime. In fact, as we
sat and talked, I watched his handler wince more than once as Franchot, on
the spot, started spontaneously adding new provisions to his bill.

It’s a bold strategy. Let’s see if it pays off for him.