(SonomaSun) - For at least two decades, Sonoma County officials have sided with the wine industry in nearly every major political dispute. The reason? The industry dominates the county’s economy – and financially dominates county election campaigns.

Last spring, Sonoma County supervisors Efren Carrillo, James Gore, and Susan Gorin traveled to Sacramento to meet with some of California’s highest-ranking regulatory officials: California Secretary of Food and Agriculture Karen Ross, Secretary of Fish and Wildlife Charles Bonham, senior staff members at the State Water Resources Control Board, and State Water Resources Control Board member Dee Dee D’Adamo.

‏​The subject of the closed-door session was a pending drought-related emergency order governing water use in four sections of the Russian River watershed, which the state and federal governments had deemed crucial to the survival of the endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout. According to Supervisor Gore, in an interview with me last year, the specific focus of the conversation was to determine “what we could do to achieve the goal of water in the creeks for coho.”

‏​Soon after, the Water Board announced the terms of the regulatory order, which spans 270 days – and remains in effect as of this writing. It applies to an estimated 13,000 Sonoma County residents. It forbids watering of lawns. It places limits on car washing and watering residential gardens. It does not, however, place mandatory limits on water used by irrigated vineyards, which are arguably the main recent cause of the iconic fish species’ perilous decline in the four areas in question.

‏​The failure to regulate the wine industry outraged hundreds of local residents, who vented their opinions in public comment sessions at a series of public meetings held by the Water Board last year. Ironically, based on statements by the Water Board’s D’Adamo, the three elected Sonoma County representatives may have had a role in preventing exactly the restrictions for which these residents advocated.

‏​In a 2015 public meeting, a Mark West Creek resident asked D’Adamo why the wine industry was exempt from the order. D’Adamo noted that “the county” had requested that the regulations not cause “an economic impact.” In a later interview with me, D’Adamo echoed this statement. “Our target is not irrigation [for wine-grapes] that provides an economic benefit,” she said.

‏​Eventually, a slight majority of vineyard operators in the four watersheds (71 out of roughly 130 at last count) voluntarily committed to reducing their water use by 25 percent, relative to 2013 levels. Many onlookers question the efficacy of this voluntary effort, which they note lacks oversight. Meanwhile, one of Sonoma County’s largest wine corporations, Jackson Family Wines, agreed to pump 2.3 million gallons of water from a reservoir serving a pinot noir vineyard into Green Valley Creek. ​To many residents and environmentalists, though, this episode involving the Water Board reflects an elementary truth of Sonoma County’s modern power structure: The wine industry receives constant support from Sonoma County policymakers in every major political battle, even as it invades neighborhoods and pollutes the environment.

‏The Wine Juggernaut

‏​Nobody in Sonoma County is more devoted to touting the wine industry’s economic might than the wine industry itself. A 2014 report commissioned by the Sonoma County Vintners and Sonoma County Winegrowers, for example, estimates that the industry accounted for an unbelievable $13.4 billion in economic activity in 2012.

‏​That equates to about two-thirds of the county’s roughly $20 billion in economic activity that year. The study factors in the industry’s direct and indirect impacts, including its effect on the real estate market and tourism, spending by the industry’s workforce, and the like. Meanwhile, the California wine industry annually reaps more than $35 billion in direct sales, much of it through exports to Europe, Canada, and Asia.

‏​The industry has become so profitable that most North Coast and Central Coast officials, from county supervisors to members of Congress, have internalized the notion that their role is to do virtually everything they can to facilitate the industry’s continued growth. US Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), for instance, is a co-founder of the Congressional Wine Caucus and has largely based his career on advocacy for the industry’s positions on water, zoning, labor laws, subsidies, and more.

‏​Yet, according to UC Santa Cruz Emeritus Professor of Sociology Bill Domhoff, a world-renowned power structure researcher, the wine industry’s political power is based on its position within a particular kind of “growth coalition” that also involves alliances with other sectors. In California’s North Bay and Central Coast regions, the premium wine industry is strongly integrated with the all-important real estate and tourism sectors.

‏​In Sonoma County, for example, vineyards have helped to “preserve” the pastoral countryside while simultaneously increasing land values, and have helped create a market for both luxury estates and tract housing. The wine industry’s importance to local real estate, as a 2011 Santa Rosa Press Democrat article put it, is that it “attracts [wealthy] outsiders who want second homes nestled near vineyards or close to town squares with trendy restaurants.”

‏​Bolstered by this sort of broader economic impact, as well as the unmatched social stature of its product (premium bottles of wine), the wine industry continually endeavors to expand. In recent years, that growth has been concentrated within Sonoma County on construction of new wineries, tasting rooms, and tourist-oriented event centers, as well as new vineyards in remote areas that were previously considered un-plantable.

‏​In 2005, Sonoma County was home to roughly 200 wineries, according to data from the county. A little more than a decade later, there are roughly 450 – with more than 60 applications for new or expanded wineries in the pipeline.

‏The Wine Industry’s Political Donations

‏​Even with its symbiotic relationship to the multi-trillion dollar real estate boom, as well as an assumed place within the culture of the ruling class, the wine industry has also achieved and maintained power through crassly material means: limit-bursting campaign contributions, a slew of political action committees staffed with well-connected executives, and an army of top-flight Sacramento and Washington, DC lobbyists.

Because potential reforms to environmental regulations and labor laws that could cut into their profit margins are most likely to emerge at the state level in the State Legislature, many of the industry’s activities have been geared toward Sacramento politicians. But seats on the Board of Supervisors are also coveted political posts, particular given the county’s influence on land use and environmental regulations. For example, county general plans are the linchpins of California’s land use and development laws.

‏​The most recent Sonoma County supervisors race, a 2014 content pitting James Gore against Deb Fudge in the 4th district, provides a revealing window. It was the most expensive local race in the county’s history, marking the first time a county election generated more than $1 million in donations. ​The majority of that funding, more than $700,000, was spent to elect Gore. More than $150,000 of that was spent by outside political action committees (PACs), $480,000 by Gore’s campaign committee, and about $80,000 spent by Gore himself.

‏​Wine industry money was, by far, Gore’s largest source of support, based on a review of campaign filings I conducted for this story. The fourth district supervisor, who was a political unknown prior to entering the race, received an astounding $144,975.10 from grape growers, winery owners, vineyard consultants, and their employees, according to filings with the Sonoma County Elections Division.

‏​Factoring in the $22,259.14 he received from other agriculture industries, including equipment suppliers and cattle ranchers (some of whom also grow grapes), the total rises to $166,849.24 and 35.4 percent. But, recalling sociologist Bill Domhoff’s analysis, Gore’s fundraising success is really a triumph of growth coalition politics, with wine at the center of that coalition. The rest of his donor base consists of industries that dovetail strongly with the wine industry in his north county district, including the real estate industry, the construction industry, law firms, and the banking/investment industries.

‏​Even among retirees and unemployed people, who donated a robust $25,227.28 to Gore’s campaign, the wine industry is strongly represented. Four digit donations in this sector came from the likes of retired former Sonoma County Winegrowers director Nick Frey ($1,615.00) and Diane Horn ($1,000), who is married to multi-billion dollar wine corporation Constellation Brands’ Sonoma County vineyard manager, Keith Horn.

‏​In addition to the importance of wine to the district he represents, Gore has distinct personal ties to the wine industry, as Dave Ransom has reported in the New Press. Gore’s uncle Doug oversees the extensive Washington and California wine operations of Altria Group, once known as Phillip Morris. His brother, Tom, is an executive of Constellation Brands’ Sonoma and Mendocino vineyard operations.

‏​Gore is also a former employee of Wine America, a wine industry lobbying outfit based in Washington, DC in which Kendall-Jackson plays a prominent role. The 39-year-old Gore also spent four years at one of Wine America’s contract lobbying firms, JBC, as the “primary representative of the California Wine/Winegrape industry on international affairs and trade.”

‏​Whereas the fabled average donation to Bernies Sanders’ campaign is $27, the average wine industry donor to Gore cut him a check with a comma in it: $1,302. But Gore is not alone. My review of campaign donation data for this story also shows that wine donations have been a major funding source for several other supervisors, most notably Efren Carrillo and David Rabbitt.