Kentucky - Law and Government

Law and Government

Kentucky is one of four U.S. states to officially use the term commonwealth. The term was used for Kentucky as it had also been used by Virginia, from which Kentucky was created. The term has no particular significance in its meaning and was chosen to emphasize the distinction from the status of royal colonies as a place governed for the general welfare of the populace.

The commonwealth term was used in citizen petitions submitted between 1786 and 1792 for the creation of the state, and in the Kentucky Constitution adopted in 1850. It was also used in the title of a history of the state that was published in 1834 and was used in various places within that book in references to Virginia and Kentucky. The other two states officially called "commonwealths" are Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Kentucky is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd-numbered years (the others being Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia). Kentucky holds elections for these offices every 4 years in the years preceding Presidential election years. Thus, Kentucky held gubernatorial elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011.

See also: List of Governors of Kentucky, Kentucky Senate, and Kentucky House of Representatives

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