Washington

Washington has a large plural executive: voters elect nine statewide officials independently of one another. Alongside the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, they choose the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, the Attorney General, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (a nonpartisan office over K–12 schools), the Insurance Commissioner, and — unusually — the Commissioner of Public Lands, who runs the Department of Natural Resources and manages millions of acres of state forest and aquatic lands. Only a handful of states elect a lands commissioner.

The Lieutenant Governor is elected separately from the Governor, not as a ticket, so the two can be from different parties; the office presides over the State Senate. Because so many officers are elected in their own right, the Governor leads the executive branch but shares real authority with eight colleagues who answer to the voters.

The Washington State Legislature is bicameral, built on 49 legislative districts that each elect one senator and two representatives — so there are 49 senators (four-year terms) and 98 representatives (two-year terms). It is a part-time, citizen legislature: members are paid $67,688 a year plus a per diem and many keep outside careers. There are no term limits — voters passed them in 1992, but the courts struck them down.

The calendar runs on a two-year budget cycle with a distinctive long-year/short-year rhythm: the Legislature convenes every January for a 105-day session in odd-numbered years, when it writes the two-year budget, and a shorter 60-day session in even years for adjustments.

A bill is introduced, sent to committee, and — if it advances — voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage. Washington’s governor has an unusually broad "partial veto": beyond rejecting a whole bill, the governor can strike individual sections, and within appropriations bills can even veto particular items — a wider line-item power than many states grant. A veto override takes two-thirds of each chamber.

Washington also has strong direct democracy. Citizens can use the initiative to propose statutes — either directly to the ballot or first to the Legislature (the "initiative to the Legislature") — and can use the referendum to block a law lawmakers passed by referring it to a public vote. Qualifying takes a large number of valid signatures; a simple majority then decides. Major Washington policy, from tax measures to transportation, is regularly written this way.

The Governor appoints the heads of the agencies that aren’t separately elected, fills certain vacancies, proposes the budget, can call special sessions, holds broad emergency powers, and wields the broad partial veto described above, which gives the office real leverage over legislation and spending. The Governor also holds the clemency power.

The main checks are structural rather than a single rival office: eight other independently elected executives run major pieces of state government, and the strength of the initiative and referendum means voters can write or repeal law directly. With no term limits, a Washington governor can also build influence over a long tenure.

Washington elects its judges in nonpartisan elections at every level. The Supreme Court of Washington — nine justices elected statewide — sits at the top, above the divisional Court of Appeals and the trial-level Superior Courts. When a seat opens mid-term the Governor appoints a replacement, who then must stand in the next nonpartisan election. Keeping judicial races officially nonpartisan is meant to hold the courts apart from party politics.