An offshoot of one of Kootenai County's numerous Republican clubs filed a statewide initiative Monday to privatize liquor sales in Idaho. The move is separate from one that had been mulled by the same grocery association that backed the successful liquor privatization drive in Washington state; that group said today that it won't push an initiative this year after all.

The "Reagan Republicans" group said its initiative would push privatization on smaller-government grounds. "This was kind of our coming-out party for Reagan Republicans statewide, something that we thought reduced the size and scope of government," said Jeff Ward, president of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans and the new Idaho Federation of Reagan Republicans. "I'm an evangelical Christian, very conservative, and my viewpoint is with the way that works now, as a state, it makes me basically a shareholder in the liquor business, and I don't want to be in the liquor business." You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.