State Sen. Ron Alting, as much as any person in the state, holds the keys to the prohibition on sales of retail package liquor and alcohol on Sundays — one of the last vestiges of Indiana's blue laws.
Ask the Lafayette Republican about it and about how his say-so will go a long way when a new Sunday sales bill is filed in the 2015 General Assembly, and he'll tell you he doesn't think it's a pressing issue for many Hoosiers.
Then again, ask his friends and …
"It was funny, when I was down in the (Lafayette Christmas) parade on Sunday, and when we were in front of (Bistro) 501, a lot of them were there holding up their drinks and pointing at their drinks," Alting said, laughing. "You could read their lips: 'Sunday sales. Sunday sales. We want Sunday sales.'
"So there's that."
In the past seven years, Sunday alcohol sales bills have died without hearings in Senate and House public policy committees. Each time, the blame and praise, depending on your view, has been laid before Alting, a former bar and restaurant owner who is chairman of the Senate Public Policy Committee.
Last week, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana Retail Council, which represents grocery stores, rolled out a new coalition, Hoosiers for Sunday Sales. They promise a blitz meant to top opposition by the mom-and-pop liquor store-backed Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers and the contentment of legislators willing to leave things as they are on Sundays.
Alting, who ran unopposed in November for his fifth term in the Senate, is willing to say this could be the year for Sunday sales.