Raymond McGrath: beer pressure - Movers & Shakers

During wartime, citizen insurgents are often called upon to fight for their objectives through propaganda and persuasion. Raymond McGrath is leading one of the most rapidly persuasive citizen armies in the U.S. today. And he's just getting started. As president of the Beer Institute, a trade organization dedicated to lobbying legislators on behalf of the beer industry, he is dedicated to bolstering the strength of his citizen troops to fight legislation that might hurt them and their businesses.

With a beachhead in every Congressional district, the Beer Institute is poised to create an successful uprising. McGrath has brought most of their press and public relations operations in-house and is streamlining the Institute into a lean mean fighting machine. Before long he will have an "army of people who would at the drop of a hat walk into a Congressional office and articulate our views."

Strangely enough, this father of four sons wants to shape his army in the mold of one of the strongest advocacy groups in the country -- the Girl Scouts. McGrath admires the Girl Scout's ability to start with a central message and convey it through local regions. "The Girl Scouts pick up the phone. . . And within five days they'll have three people in to see somebody with position papers, talking in an educated way about the issues that affect them," he says. "That's about as good as it gets, and that's the way I want it to be."

Having represented New York's fifth congressional district for 12 years, McGrath knows the kind of ammo it takes to sway political leaders. "This is not really a new strategy," McGrath says. "From experience, I felt more influenced by someone in my district than some paid gunslinger from Washington, DC."

Few realize the reach of each six-pack of beer. That chilled swarthy and foamed spirit is responsible for producing the paychecks of more than three million people in the United States. From the mega-brewers to the family micro-brewers, the raw materials behind the industry are astounding -- glass bottles, metal bottle caps, aluminum cans, plastic six-pack straps, paper labels, cardboard flats, fresh rice, barley, oats and hops, and the factory tools and trucks to assemble and deliver the final product to stores and bars around the country.

McGrath was originally hired in early spring of 1993 to fight a proposed "sin tax" on the brewing industry by the Clinton administration. Since then the anti-tax stance of the Institute which is based on a need to protect small businesses (which makes up most of the brewing and distribution companies) helped persuade the White House to back off. To illustrate another aspect of the power of beer: The Beer Drinkers of America, a group aimed at protecting the beer consumer from Capitol Hill and a partner in many causes with the Beer Institute, boasts well over 700,000 members as well as 80 million beer consumers across the country.

The reason for his early success was due in part to his reputation for forging friendships on both sides of the aisle -- as a graduate of New York's Nassau county Republican politics this quality is not well celebrated by others from his political school of hard knocks like Rich Bond and Al D'Amato. Even as a longtime Republican, he has no trouble making in-roads into the Clinton camp. "Many of my friends are in that administration," he says.

This attitude explains why McGrath is not happy with the direction in which politics is heading: "Politics is not about issues anymore, it's too personal. Back in the old days, once the session was over so was the fight. . . it didn't matter whether my friends had a 'D' or 'R' behind their name."

On the homefront, this tall, cigar smoking, soft-spoken, white-haired man is committed to his job because of his commitment to his family. He said he will not stop working until all four of his sons graduate from college. "I can't retire. I'll be sending a child to college 10 years from now, and my four-month-old will be graduating from college, hopefully, 22 years from now."

For now, his next success story will certainly include his goals for the Beer Institute. He is shaping the trade organization into an effective lobbying force. And as long as beer is a popular drink and a major industry for America, politicians can expect a steady flow of beer pressure.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Campaigns & Elections, Inc.
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