LINDALE - The well-funded campaign to expand alcohol sales in Lindale failed Saturday, unable to overcome a grassroots opposition that won despite having been outspent by tens of thousands of dollars. On a day when 17 other Texas communities were considering alcohol referendums, including several near Dallas and Fort Worth, voters in small-town Lindale sent a big message.

Complete but unofficial returns show 705 votes, or 69 percent, against the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption; and 312, or 31 percent, for the measure.

The measure for the legal sale of mixed beverages in restaurants fared little better, with 615 votes, or 61 percent, against; and 391, or 39 percent, in favor.

The 1,035 ballots represent 49 percent of Lindale's 2,100 registered voters - a large turnout for any election. There are no official records of voter turnout for previous elections reflecting only Lindale voters, but in last year's close presidential election, a record 63 percent of Smith County voters went to the polls.

It was a four-month campaign that took this town of about 4,000 people by surprise. Alcohol has not been on the ballot anywhere in Smith County in the last 30 years, and the county has been entirely dry for a century, except for a few years in the 1930s, and except for the 78 restaurants that sell alcohol with private club licenses. Lindale has only three licensed private clubs.

The pro-alcohol campaign was funded entirely by a Dallas business group that operates gas stations on Interstate 20, and was run by Texas Petition Strategies, an Austin-based election consulting firm that has petitioned for and won alcohol referendums in 34 out of 37 attempts since 2003.

That was the year state law changed, requiring fewer voter signatures to trigger a local-option election. Before Saturday, at least 48 areas in Texas had passed measures expanding alcohol sales since the law changed. Another 30 either failed to gather enough signatures to trigger an election or had the measure rejected by voters. Local-option elections may cover a city, county or a justice of the peace precinct.

Despite spending only a few thousand dollars, Lindale's anti-alcohol political action committee turned the city into a landscape of blue-and-white "Keep Lindale Dry" signs, and went door to door to summon "dry" votes to the polls.

"The sign campaign by the opposition was great," said John Hatch, the Texas Petition Strategies consultant who coordinated the pro-alcohol campaign.

"I think it sends a real strong message Lindale wants to stay dry," said Wayne Fancher, campaign coordinator for Citizens for an Alcohol- and Drug-Free Lindale, the anti-alcohol PAC. Fancher is also pastor at Lindale Church of Christ.

"It was our intention not to just win," Fancher said. "We wanted to stomp it ... If it was a close vote, we'd be doing this every year. I respectfully ask the people who were behind this to please leave Lindale alone. Go someplace else."

Fancher said the door-to-door campaign helped him to get to know his hometown better than he ever had.

"Lindale is an old-fashioned community," he said. "Really, that's just the way it is. It's really a very strong God-fearing community. The people didn't want (alcohol sales) for our city ... even the people that drink didn't want this for our city."

Religious and economic development leaders in Tyler and Smith County were watching the Lindale election closely as a possible litmus test of cultural values in the county. Fancher said he did not know whether the Lindale results could be read as a discouraging message for anyone wanting to expand alcohol sales elsewhere in the county.

But Lindale resident Christine Kjosa, who campaigned for Lindale Citizens for Better Business, the pro-alcohol PAC, said, "There will be a day, I guarantee you, when a town in Smith County goes wet."

"I just think change is something that causes a lot of fear," she said. "But I am glad at least we were the first to change the status quo. We've been dry for over 100 years."

Hatch said, "Lindale's going to continue to grow and you're going to see other places that are going to start changing their laws in close proximity, and there will be leaders standing up and saying, 'I'm tired of losing the revenue to a neighboring city.'"

Election day results showed a late surge in pro-alcohol voters, possibly propelled by widespread mailers sent to voters in the week leading up to the election.

Hatch said he suspected a number of people voted against the measures because of misinformation, fearing liquor stores would open in Lindale, which could not have happened if the measures passed.

"The winners?" he said. "Big Sandy, Coffee City. They still get to keep their beer-and-wine monopoly."

In other communities in Texas, the liquor industry has funneled money into anti-alcohol campaigns to prevent sales competition from springing up in new areas. Finance reports showed no record of that happening in Lindale, and Hatch said he believed it didn't happen here.

Despite a sometimes fierce public dialogue between those who saw potential benefits from alcohol sales tax revenues, and those who feared more crime and alcohol-related death and medical expenses, the election results did not reflect as deep a divide in the community as some had suspected.

"Other towns - this may tear them apart," Fancher said. "But it's not going to tear Lindale apart."

Mark Collette covers Smith County. He can be reached at 903.596.6303. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com

©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2005