Governor of California

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The Governor of California is the highest executive authority in the state government, whose responsibilities include making annual "State of the State" addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced.

The position was created in 1849, before California became a state. Previously, there had been six American military governors and numerous Mexican governors when California was part of the United Mexican States.

The current governor is Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who was elected on October 7, 2003 to complete recalled Democratic Governor Gray Davis's term, and reelected on November 7, 2006, defeating California State Treasurer Phil Angelides of the Democratic Party. His second term is scheduled to last until January 3, 2011.

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Gubernatorial powers

The governor has the power to veto bills from the California State Legislature. The Legislature can override a veto by a two-thirds majority vote in both the Assembly and the Senate. The governor can veto particular items from an appropriations bill while leaving others intact.

Law-enforcement powers include the ability to grant pardons and commute sentences, as well as serving as the commander-in-chief of the state militia. In addition to calling the National Guard into active duty, the governor can call the California State Military Reserve to active duty to support the Guard.

The governor also has full membership and voting powers to the Regents of the University of California, the governing board of the University of California system, along with other elected officials, and a majority of members on the Regents of the University of California are appointed by the governor.

Gubernatorial elections and term of office

Governors are elected by popular ballot and serve terms of four years, with a term limit of two terms. Governors take office on the first Monday after January 1 after their election.

Gubernatorial removal

There are two methods available to remove a governor before the expiration of the gubernatorial term of office.

Impeachment and removal by the legislature

The governor can be impeached for "misconduct in office" by the State Assembly and removed by a two-thirds vote of the State Senate.

Recall by the voters

Petitions signed by California voters equal in number to 12% of the last vote for the office of governor (with signatures from each of 5 counties equal in number to 1% of the last vote for governor in the county) can launch a gubernatorial recall election. The voters can then vote on whether or not to recall the incumbent governor, and on the same ballot, they can vote a potential replacement. If a majority of the voters in the election vote to recall the governor, then the person who gains a plurality of the votes in the replacement race will become governor.

See also:

External links

This article was taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with a GNU license

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23 Republicans 23 • 27 Democrats
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