Is Governor Rendell having an affair with a state government employee?

In a story published in the new issue of Philadelphia magazine, both the governor and the woman, Dr. Kirstin Snow, director of Commonwealth Media Services, deny they have an improper relationship.

“Absolutely not,” Snow says when asked directly whether she and Rendell are having an affair. “No way. And if I had a nickel for everybody who told me that, I wouldn’t have to come to my job.”

Rendell himself responds directly to rumors that he’s been telling people Snow is “the love of my life” and his “soulmate.”

“Do you think I would ever use the words ‘soulmate’ or ‘love of my life?’” he asks. “Ed Rendell would never enunciate those phrases. That’s like Romeo and Juliet.”

Elsewhere in the story Rendell himself raises the issue of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and allegations a year ago that the same hooker Spitzer was involved with had a second paramour who was a governor, with a prominent wife. Blogosphere fingers pointed at Rendell for a couple of days.

“I was hoping that the New York Post would print that it was me,” Rendell says, “and then I was going to own the New York Post. Midge knew it wasn’t me. I have my failings, but she was pretty confident that I didn’t go to a prostitute.”

The story, along with a photo of Snow and Rendell taken last fall in Harrisburg, appears in the July issue of Philadelphia magazine, which hits newsstands on Monday.