Governer* (for Governor*)

In Martin Luther King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, he states: "We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote." Governor Andrew Cuomo also has a dream, although it may not rise to the soaring heights of Dr. King's. In any case, there are quite a few New Yorkers who pray that our new governor isn't merely dreaming. Andrew comes from a liberal political family (New York's answer to the Kennedy dynasty) and possesses a good measure of the personal charm and rhetorical grace of his father, Mario Cumo, New York's governor from 1983 to 1994. However, some suspect that, despite his vision for a "new New York," Andrew may be too indebted to financial and corporate interests to sway an intransigently dysfunctional legislature, reverse the state's crushing debt, and protect the interests of his many constituents. (Including the thousands of state workers worried about losing their jobs.) Still, one can always dream. We found 37 cases of Governer* in OhioLINK, making this a "high probability" typo on the Ballard list. Be sure to check the sources on these as some could be representative of old or variant spellings.

(Governor Andrew Cuomo at a rally supporting the candidacy of Eric Schneiderman for attorney general, September 30, 2010, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid