And unlike those before him who have tried - and tried - but failed, Corbett advocates privatizing the stores to help balance the state's cash-starved budget, which next year faces an estimated $4 billion deficit. Some Republicans estimate that auctioning off the system could rake in a cool $2 billion.
He can expect an epic battle.
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones 3d, Gov. Tom Ridge's point person on the unsuccessful privatization drive in the 1990s - the last serious stab at selling off the system - received so many threats at the time that he was assigned a security detail.
"It was brutal," said Jones, recalling long days testifying in the House and Senate. "I had the stuffing kicked out of me. It was a blood sport."
Though Corbett has given little detail about his proposal or when he may roll it out, many in the Capitol expect he will do so in his first budget address, in March.
It will not be a quick or easy process.
Past efforts have been thwarted by an unlikely alliance including unions that want to protect the jobs of state workers, and the so-called "moral" forces who believe alcohol should be tightly controlled and regulated.
Their argument for keeping the state system is clear and crisp: One, selling it to private industry will spike underage drinking as well as drunken-driving tragedies. Two, the state system reaps hundreds of millions in taxes and profits every year. And three: State Store customers now have access to improved stores with good selections and values.
"I don't know any legislator who gets a volume of calls from constituents saying it's time to privatize," said Wendell W. Young 4th, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, which represents 3,000 employees in the state's wine and spirits shops.
