Mulhern also cost the taxpayers a pretty penny in other ways, especially when he wanted to go somewhere or someone asked him to speak. A notice on the governor's official state website said:

Please note that the First Gentleman is accompanied to all events by a staff person and security personnel. We request that accommodations be made in seating and in meals.

Naturally, the taxpayers paid for the security personnel too. Now, apart from the fact that the state was broke, this was nuts.

Now hear this: The governor's family is not royalty.

Nor is the governor president of the United States, an office that has both governmental and ceremonial functions. I have no problem with a state employee driving Sue Snyder somewhere if she is appearing on behalf of her husband on what is clearly state business.

But she is a private person who both deserves privacy and doesn't merit an imperial staff. Here's hoping the Office of the Unelected Spouse is a tradition she is smart enough to let die.

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