Virginia

Virginia (officially a "Commonwealth") keeps its elected executive small: voters choose just three statewide officials, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Attorney General. Unlike many states, Virginia does not separately elect a treasurer, auditor, or secretary of state; those are appointed posts.

The three are elected independently rather than as a ticket, so the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General can come from a different party than the Governor, and often have. The Lieutenant Governor presides over the State Senate and is first in the line of succession. The Governor appoints the cabinet secretaries and agency heads who run the rest of the executive branch.

The Virginia General Assembly traces its origins to the House of Burgesses in 1619, making it the oldest continuous legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. It is bicameral: a 40-seat State Senate (four-year terms) and a 100-seat House of Delegates (two-year terms).

It is a hybrid legislature that leans toward a part-time, citizen body. Senators are paid $18,000 a year and delegates $17,640, plus a session expense allowance, and members keep regular careers. Sessions are short and fixed by the constitution: the General Assembly convenes each January for about 60 days in even-numbered years (when it writes the two-year budget) and a shorter session, roughly 30 to 46 days, in odd-numbered years. There are no term limits.

A bill is introduced, referred to committee, and, if it advances, voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage; the short sessions make the calendar tight. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or return it with recommended amendments, and holds a line-item veto over appropriations. A veto override takes two-thirds of each chamber.

Virginia has a distinctive "reconvened" (or "veto") session: several weeks after the regular session ends, the General Assembly comes back for a day to act on the Governor’s vetoes and amendment recommendations. Virginia has no citizen initiative, voters cannot enact statutes directly. Constitutional amendments must be passed by two separately elected sessions of the General Assembly and then ratified by the voters.

The headline limit is unique: Virginia is the only state that bars its governor from serving two consecutive terms. A governor may serve again later, but never back-to-back, which shapes the whole arc of a Virginia governorship.

Within a single term the office is otherwise strong. The Governor appoints the cabinet and agency heads, proposes the budget, holds a line-item veto, and can call special sessions. Clemency is broad and belongs to the Governor alone, Virginia governors hold a notably wide power to grant pardons and to restore the civil rights of people with felony convictions, including the right to vote, which in Virginia is restored by gubernatorial action rather than automatically.

Virginia is one of only two states (with South Carolina) where the legislature elects the judges. The General Assembly chooses justices and judges at every level, the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Court of Appeals, and the trial-level Circuit and District courts, for fixed terms, and the Governor only fills vacancies temporarily when the legislature is out of session. Voters and the Governor have little say; judicial selection runs through the legislature.