Governor of California

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Governor of California
Standard of the Governor of California.svg
Standard of the Governor
Seal of the 39th Governor of California.png
Seal of the Governor
Edmund G Brown Jr.jpg
Incumbent
Jerry Brown
since January 3, 2011
Style The Honorable
Residence California Governor's Mansion
Term length Four years, renewable once
Inaugural holder Peter Hardeman Burnett
Formation December 20, 1849
Deputy Gavin Newsom
Salary US$173,987 (2013)[1]
Website Official website

The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state

government, commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California
State Military Reserve, whose responsibilities also 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, the year
before California became a state. The current governor is Jerry Brown, a Democrat
who was inaugurated January 3, 2011, and who had previously served as governor from
1975 to 1983. In October 2013, Jerry Brown surpassed Earl Warren for the longest
cumulative period of time served as governor.

Contents

1 Gubernatorial elections, oath, and term of office

1.1 Gubernatorial removal
2 Relationship with Lieutenant Governor of California
3 Gubernatorial facts
3.1 Age and longevity
3.2 Transition events
3.3 Presidential campaigns
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Gubernatorial elections, oath, and term of office

See also: List of Governors of California

Governors are elected by popular ballot and serve terms of four years, with a limit
of two terms, if served after November 6, 1990.[2] Governors take the following
oath:

I (Governor) do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution
of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all
enemies foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California,
that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of
evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am
about to enter.
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 state 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.

The 2003 California recall began with a petition drive that successfully forced
sitting Democratic Governor Gray Davis into a special recall election. It marked
the first time in the history of California that a governor faced a recall
election. He was subsequently voted out of office, becoming the second governor in
the history of the United States to be recalled after Lynn Frazier of North Dakota
in 1921. He was replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Relationship with Lieutenant Governor of California
Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger (left) and Governor Gray Davis (right) with
President George W. Bush in 2003

The Lieutenant Governor of California is separately elected during the same

election, not jointly as the running mate of the gubernatorial candidate.
California has had a governor and a lieutenant governor of different parties 26 of
the past 31 years. This occasionally becomes significant, since the California
Constitution provides that all the powers of the governor fall to the lieutenant
governor whenever the governor is not in the state of California, with the
lieutenant governor often signing or vetoing legislation, or making political
appointments, whenever the governor leaves the state. The lieutenant governor is
also the President of the California State Senate. In practice, there is a
gentlemen's agreement for the Lieutenant Governor not to perform more than
perfunctory duties while the Governor is away from the state. This agreement was
violated when Mike Curb was in office, as he signed several executive orders at
odds with the Brown administration when Brown was out of the state. Court rulings
have upheld the lieutenant governor's right to perform the duties and assume all of
the prerogatives of governor while the governor is out of the state.[3]
Gubernatorial facts
Age and longevity

Peter Burnett had the longest post-governorship, 44 years. He left office in

1851 and died in 1895.
Excluding governors who died in office, Robert Waterman had the shortest post-
governorship. He died on April 12, 1891, a short three months and four days after
the expiration of his term.
Sworn in at the age of 30, J. Neely Johnson was the youngest governor from 1856
to 1858.
Sworn in at the age of 72, Jerry Brown became the oldest governor in 2011.
Earl Warren was the only governor to serve more than two consecutive terms in
office (19431953).
Jerry Brown previously served as governor for eight years (19751983) and
returned to office 28 years later to serve as the incumbent governor (since 2011).
Milton Latham served the shortest term in office of five days (January 914,
1860).
Of the 38 governors who held office, seven of them were born in California (six
of them after statehood):
One (Romualdo Pacheco) was born in Santa Barbara.
Four (George Pardee, James Rolph, Pat Brown, and Jerry Brown) were born in
San Francisco.
One (Hiram Johnson) was born in Sacramento.
One (Earl Warren) was born in Los Angeles.
Two governors were not born in the United States:
John G. Downey was born in Ireland.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Austria.
Only two governors have died in office:
Washington Bartlett on September 12, 1887
James Rolph on June 2, 1934
Ronald Reagan had the longest life-span of any governor, 93 years.
J. Neely Johnson had the shortest life-span of any governor, 47 years.
Both governors who died in office, Washington Bartlett in 1887 and James Rolph
in 1934, served as Mayor of San Francisco shortly before becoming governor.
Two governors are related:
Pat Brown (19591967) was the father of twice-governor Jerry Brown
(19751983, 2011 to present).

Transition events
Milton Latham
6th Governor
(1860)

Five governors have resigned:

Peter Burnett in 1851 "as a result of certain personal prejudices" in favor
of slavery[4]
Milton Latham in 1860 to become a United States Senator
Newton Booth in 1875 to become a United States Senator
Hiram Johnson in 1917 to become a United States Senator
Earl Warren in 1953 to become Chief Justice of the United States
One governor has been recalled:
Gray Davis in 2003
Seven governors took office without being elected to the governor's seat,
having been elected as lieutenant governor and then ascending from that position:
Four of them did not run to succeed themselves, and were never elected
governor:
John McDougall in 1851
John G. Downey in 1860
Romualdo Pacheco in 1875
Robert Waterman in 1887
The other three later ran for governor, and were elected to succeed
themselves as governor:
William Stephens in 1917
Frank Merriam in 1934
Goodwin Knight in 1953
One governor has served two terms, and was elected to a non-consecutive third
term (followed by a fourth term):
Jerry Brown in 2010 (Brown and George Deukmejian are the most recent living
former governors of California who were elected to two terms before the term limits
were enacted on November 6, 1990)

Presidential campaigns
Ronald Reagan
33rd Governor
(19671975)
40th President of the United States
(19811989)

One former governor of California won his party's nomination and was elected
President of the United States:
Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (Republican)
Five governors actively sought the nomination of their party, but were
unsuccessful:
Hiram Johnson in 1920 and 1924 (Republican)
Pat Brown in 1960 (Democratic)
Jerry Brown in 1976, 1980 and 1992 (Democratic)
Ronald Reagan in 1968 and 1976 (Republican)
Pete Wilson in 1996 (Republican)
Two governors were nominated for Vice President, but their ticket lost the
election:
Hiram Johnson (Ran with Theodore Roosevelt, Progressive, 1912)
Earl Warren (Ran with Thomas Dewey, Republican, 1948)
Two governors did not run for president, but were under serious consideration
by their party's nominee during their governorship to be their running mate for the
office of Vice President, but were not chosen:
George Deukmejian (George H.W. Bush, Republican, 1988) declined being
considered because of his vast ideological differences with Lieutenant Governor Leo
McCarthy, who would have become governor if Deukmejian accepted the nomination and
was elected to the Vice Presidency.[5]
Gray Davis (Al Gore, Democratic, 2000)
One unsuccessful candidate for governor of California was elected President of
the United States:
Former Vice President Richard Nixon was the Republican nominee for Governor
of California in 1962, and lost to Democrat Pat Brown. Nixon later was elected
president in 1968 and reelected in 1972 (Republican).

See also

Biography portal California portal iconPolitics portal United States portal

Book icon

Book: Governors of California

List of Governors of California

List of Governors of California before admission
Politics of California
Politics of California before 1900

References

"CSG Releases 2013 Governor Salaries". The Council of State Governments. June 25,
2013. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
Shelley, Kevin (October 2003). "Summary of Qualifications and Requirements for the
Office of Governor" (PDF). California Secretary of State Department. Archived from
the original (PDF) on November 28, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
In re Governorship, 26 Cal.3d 110, 401 (Supreme Court of California 1979) (we
conclude that the Lieutenant Governor has authority to exercise all gubernatorial
powers of appointment while the Governor is physically absent from the state and
that the Governor has authority to withdraw the appointment until the confirmation
of appointment becomes effective.).
Alastair Dallas (June 5, 2004). "Governors of California: 18492003".
familydallas.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2005. Retrieved March 10,
2016.

"Californian Removes Himself From Running for No. 2 Spot". The New York Times.
August 5, 1988.

External links
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