Ballotpedia makes word clouds of the 48 gubernatorial “state of the state” addresses delivered so far this year. For your Rorschachian diversion, here are the visual representations of word frequency in South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard’s January 13 address and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s April 9 speech:
According to Ballotpedia, “The average length of a 2015 address was 4,454 words with Democratic governors averaging 4,698 words and Republican governors averaging 4,010 words.” Governor Dayton and Governor Daugaard defy statistical expectations. Minnesota’s governor assessed his state’s state in 3,490 words, 22% than the national average. Nineteen State of the State addresses were shorter, with the briefest coming from Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo (1,924 words) and Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy (1,910 words).
Governor Daugaard went unexpectedly un-Coolidgian: Grandpa Cheap‘s address ran 8,702 words, 95% longer than the national average. Governor Daugaard’s State of the State speech is the third-longest this year, behind only New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo (10,377 words) and 2015 Wind Power champ Ohio Governor John Kasich (10,588 words).
It looks like Dayton emphasized “education”, but Daugard used the word “students” about as much.
BTW, Dayton is really burned at the MN legislature because they’re not going along with his plan for universal free preschool. That includes the Democrats. Uh oh. The feces is hitting the oscillator.
It’s entertaining. One never has to wonder what Dayton really thinks.