Bailey County will remain dry. Voters have defeated a proposal that would have allowed the packaged sale of liquor, beer and wine.
The proposal was defeated by 232 votes, with 1,241 voting against.
Barry Cowart, president of Concerned Citizens of Bailey County,  said members of his group worked hard to campaign against the sale of alcohol in the county.
“Even though we have alcohol available pretty well in every direction within 30 miles, we felt like there was very little benefit to us having alcohol available here in our community,” he said.
Cowart said they chose to approach the issue from a secular platform, asking residents to ask themselves, “Is this the kind of change we want in Muleshoe?” and, “Will Muleshoe be a better, safer place if alcohol is available?”
“The majority of citizens felt that the answer to that is no,” he said.
A group of 150 to 200 members sent mail-outs to county residents, conducted telephone campaigns and placed more than 750 yard signs and advertised against the measure, Cowart said.
“We had some very, very active committees,” Cowart said, explaining his group researched other communities where similar measures were passed and found in most cases opposition had not made a strong effort.
“We wanted to give it our best effort,” he said.
County Commissioner Juan Chavez, who proposed the issue and put forth a petition to get it on the ballot, said he believes he didn’t have the support needed for the proposal and couldn’t compete with the resources of the churches and Cowart’s group.
“I found out that who’s got the most money gets the most votes. The churches had a lot of money,” he said, explaining other than the $10 needed to file the petition, he didn’t have the resources to campaign for support.
“We didn’t have the money and we didn’t do very good. ... Nobody backed me up and I’m not sorry for what I did; I did the best I could with the $10 I had.”
Chavez said it was the second and likely the last time he will propose the measure, at least in the near future.
As a commissioner and former city councilman, Chavez said he wanted to see the revenue from liquor sales benefit the residents of his community instead of flowing into nearby towns where the sale of alcohol is permitted.
“I thought the taxes should be here since I see about 80 percent of the residents buying (alcohol) in Clovis,” he said.
“I thought, well maybe we ought to leave the taxes in Muleshoe.”