Governor of California - Relationship With Lieutenant Governor of California

Relationship With Lieutenant Governor of California

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:

Years Governor Party Lieutenant Governor Party
1975–1977 Jerry Brown Democratic Mervyn M. Dymally Democratic
1977–1979
1979–1981 Michael Curb Republican
1981–1983
1983–1985 George Deukmejian Republican Leo T. McCarthy Democratic
1985–1987
1987–1989
1989–1991
1991–1993 Pete Wilson Republican
1993–1995
1995–1997 Gray Davis Democratic
1997–1999
1999–2001 Gray Davis Democratic Cruz Bustamante Democratic
2001–2003
1/03 - 11/03
11/03–2005 Arnold Schwarzenegger Republican
2005–2007
2007–2009 John Garamendi Democratic
2010–2011 Abel Maldonado Republican
2011–present Jerry Brown Democratic Gavin Newsom Democratic

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.

Read more about this topic:  Governor Of California

Famous quotes containing the words relationship with, relationship, governor and/or california:

    “Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
    —Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)

    “Most childhood problems don’t result from “bad” parenting, but are the inevitable result of the growing that parents and children do together. The point isn’t to head off these problems or find ways around them, but rather to work through them together and in doing so to develop a relationship of mutual trust to rely on when the next problem comes along.”
    —Fred Rogers (20th century)

    “There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    “It shone on everyone, whether they had a contract or not. The most democratic thing I’d ever seen, that California sunshine.”
    —Angela Carter (1940–1992)