WORTH NOTING: Partying, Politicking and Parrying at Governors’ Pads

Colorado knows how to party… its first family, anyway. When August Ritter III, the eldest son of Gov. Bill Ritter (D), turned 22 in April, he had a few friends over to the mansion. They marked the occasion by sucking beer from a pony keg, waving a ceremonial Colorado flag in the historic chambers and photographing the whole affair for friends on Facebook, The Denver Post reports. There were some limits. All were legally old enough to drink alcohol, they weren’t allowed to drive drunk, and the Ritters laid down some rules, their son said in an email invitation: “1. No throwing up. 2. No sexy time.”

Ronald Reagan was the last California governor to live on taxpayers’ property , but that doesn’t mean the home of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is out of the public eye. The Sacramento Bee asked the celebrity governor why there were campaign signs supporting John McCain and Barack Obama, Republican and Democratic U.S. senators, respectively, for president. Schwarzenegger explained: “My wife (Maria Shriver) came out and endorsed Obama … and my daughter and her put the sign up in front of the gate. So I couldn’t have that sign alone, so I had to go and tell my guys, ‘Get me a McCain sign, we’ve got to put one right next to it.’ So we have both.”

In neighboring Nevada, Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) was forced out of the governor’s mansion by his wife, Dawn, while they go through a divorce. Now Dawn Gibbons is offering to let the governor come back, if she can stay in separate living quarters, writes the Reno Gazette Journal . Her attorney tried to alleviate concerns that the couple might be too close for comfort. “There’s staff and security that could referee any dispute,” he told the paper.

Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne (R) ain’t afraid of no ghosts. In fact, he wants to bring one to the Bayou State’s Old State Capitol, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reports. Dardenne wants to spruce up the site with multimedia exhibits, including a virtual ghost, to lure more visitors to the 150-year-old building. The ghost would take the form of Sarah Morgan, who wrote about Baton Rouge during the Civil War. “She is going to be our spirit of the castle,” Dardenne told The Advocate .

Being inducted into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels is still a big deal, but the certificates, not so much. Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) is scaling back the size of the documents to save the state money, the Frankfort bureau of The Associated Press reports. They’ll no longer have gold seals and blue ribbons, but they will have embossed lettering. The colonel distinction has gone to Pope John Paul II, comedian Jeff Foxworthy and even, yes, Colonel Harland Sanders of fried chicken fame.