Liberal Burblings

See how I just slipped in “in the fall” there? Sickening, isn’t it?

But, yes, there is a Democrat standing for election in November who has a popularity rating of 69% and is currently beating potential Republican challengers by more than 2 to 1. He is managing to get very enthusiastic support from his local party supporters, while the opposition are demoralised.

Who is this shining star?

Step forward, Andrew Cuomo, standing for New York State Governor. When you see him in action below you can see why he’s doing so well. He has inherited some of the charisma of his father, Mario Cuomo.

In his speech, Andrew Cuomo says that nobody is sure how many state agencies there are in the state of New York. He asks:

You know what that means – when noone can count how state agencies there are? – That means there are too many state agencies.

As an allied snippet, I saw in yesterday’s New York Times that, additionally, noone knows how many employees of the state of New York there are. There are two types of employees. Direct ones, who can be counted at 131,000, are directly controlled by the governor and who have been the subject of many lay-offs over recent years. The other type of employee is paid by a range of agencies not directly controlled by the Governor. There are perhaps 160,000 of these, but noone really knows for sure. And because the numbers are so nebulous, they have not been subject to control recently and, indeed, it seems they have increased.