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The Office of Lieutenant-Governor in the States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Warren Rex Isom
Warren Rex Isom
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

The first instances of the office of lieutenant-governor in the history of American political institutions are found in the governments of the colonial period, when in its most usual form the colonial government, like that of the trading company, consisted of a governor, a deputy-governor, a council, and a general assembly. The office was permanent, however, in only two colonies, i.e., Connecticut and Massachusetts. In other colonies, it existed only when there was a particular need for it. For instance, Lieutenant-Governor Pownall was sent to New Jersey in order to have a competent person “upon the spot” to act whenever the infirmities of the governor made it “painful and hazardous if not impossible” for him to attend to the affairs of his office.

Type
American Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 1938 , pp. 921 - 926
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1938

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References

1 New Jersey, Archives, Vol. 8, pt. 2, pp. 102, 106, 118, 135, 139, and 215Google Scholar.

2 In all except Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, West Virginia (where the president of the senate is substitute governor), and Arizona, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (where the secretary of state is substitute governor).

3 In the Maryland convention of 1864, it was pointed out that “the idea of giving the people a chance to elect two officers instead of one was the grand feature which recommended it.” Maryland, Debates and Proceedings, 1864, pp. 1316–1319Google Scholar; also, Massachusetts, Debates and Proceedings, 1820, pp. 127 and 334Google Scholar; Louisiana, Debates, 1845, p. 279Google Scholar; and see Ethridge, G. H., Mississippi Constitutions (Jackson, 1928), pp. 248–252Google Scholar.

4 New York, Debates and Proceedings, 1846, p. 168Google Scholar; Georgia, Proceedings, 1877, p. 110Google Scholar; Kentucky, Debates and Proceedings, 1890, pp. 1470–1472Google Scholar; Pennsylvania, Debates, 1872, Vol. 2, p. 344Google Scholar; Ohio, Debates and Proceedings, 1851, pp. 110, 300–303Google Scholar; and Iowa, Debates, 1857, p. 580Google Scholar.

5 Wyoming, Journal and Debates, 1889, p. 347Google Scholar; Massachusetts, Debates and Proceedings, 1820, p. 334Google Scholar.

6 Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Texas.

7 Ex parte Crump, 10 Oklahoma 133; ex parte Hawkins, ibid. 396; State v. Chambers, 96 Oklahoma 78; and ex parte Norris, 8 South Carolina 408. It was held in Oklahoma that a lieutenant-governor, upon whom the power and authority of the office of governor had “devolved,” was ineligible to succeed himself as “governor.”

8 State v. Graham, 26 Louisiana Annals 568 (1874)Google Scholar.

9 Montgomery v. Cleveland, 134 Mississippi 132; ex parte Crump and ex parte Hawkins, both cited above.

10 In 1900, United States Senator Clark of Montana resigned his office because it was alleged that he had been elected through corruption of the legislature. During an absence of the governor, Lieutenant-Governor Sprigas appointed him to fill the vacancy his own resignation had created. Compilation of Senate Election Cases (Washington, 1903), pp. 143 and 906Google Scholar.

11 The lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts is president of the council; and in Rhode Island, a member of the senate.

12 Alabama, California, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, and North Carolina. In some of these states, the appointments are made with the “advice and consent of the senate,” given in a resolution.

13 By the president pro tempore in Connecticut, Delaware, Missouri, and Pennsylvania; by the senate in Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin; by a committee on committees in Minnesota and Nebraska; and in Vermont by a committee of which the lieutenant-governor is a member.

14 The Indiana general assembly passed a property tax limitation law in a special session called for that purpose in 1932. While the bill was in the governor's office awaiting signature, opponents undertook to call it back for further consideration. But Lieutenant-Governor Bush had arranged for the Mills Brothers and others to entertain the senate during the closing hours, and all business was out of order. Indiana, Senate Journal, Special Session, 1932.

15 In 1894, the lieutenant-governor of New York ruled that a substitute measure was a new proposition and thereby rendered a rule limiting debate of no effect. New York, Senate Journal, 1894, pp. 125, 191, and 196Google Scholar. See Illinois, Senate Journal, 1915, pp. 112–125Google Scholar, for an instance of a lieutenant-governor recognizing no members but those who were intent on obstructing the progress of the senate.

16 Board of Commissioners of Leaven worth County v. Higginbotham, 17 Kansas 62, 75.

17 State v. Darbelle, 261 Missouri 515. See also Indiana, Senate Journal, Special Session, 1932, for an example. Lieutenant-Governor Bush, in the closing hours of the session, refused to sign when the senate voted a bonus to the senate employees. His explanation was: “The constitution says nothing about passing a bill or resolution over the refusal of the lieutenant-governor to sign. Consequently, if the lieutenant-governor refuses to sign and remains in his chair, there is no way to pass anything over his refusal to sign.”

18 Kelly v. Secretary of State, 149 Michigan 343. The lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island is a member of the senate.

19 Often the lieutenant-governor announces in the event of a tie vote: “A majority not having voted in favor thereof, the motion does not prevail.” Riddle, , Legislative Procedure, p. 15Google Scholar. Mr. Riddle was once the lieutenant-governor of Kansas. Also, Giles, W. D., The Idaho Legislature, pp. 15–17Google Scholar. Mr. Giles was once the lieutenant governor of Idaho. Lieutenant-governors of Indiana usually take the opposite attitude. See Indiana, Senate Journal, 1917, pp. 45–46Google Scholar.

20 Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Texas. He can debate in the committee of the whole in Connecticut.

21 “Shear the lieutenant-governor of every power except that of being presiding officer and he still has more influence than any other man in the senate!,” exclaimed a delegate in the Massachusetts convention of 1853. Debates and Proceedings, p. 335.

22 The lieutenant-governor of New York refused to put a motion to seat a member while the convention of 1894 was in session. The convention empowered the president pro tempore to preside whenever the lieutenant-governor should refuse to act. New York, Senate Journal, February 5, 1894, and Revised Record of the Constitutional Convention, 1894, Vol. 1, pp. 394 and 1152Google Scholar; Vol. 2, pp. 26–31 and 483–489; and Vol. 5, p. 746. Similar action was taken in Michigan when the lieutenant governor tried to rule the evenly divided senate in the special session of 1907. Kelly v. Secretary of State, 149 Michigan 343; Michigan, Senate Journal, Extra Session, 1907, pp. 1–3, 42–45, and 72–75Google Scholar; and Debates and Proceedings, 1907, pp. 340, 490–492, and 1301–1302Google Scholar.

23 In Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, he is a “visitor” of the state institutions. In Pennsylvania and California, he is chairman of the board of pardons.

24 He is ex officio member of the board of regents of the state university in California and member of the board of the school for the blind in Texas.

25 He had part in the administration of the war loans in Pennsylvania and of the soldiers' bonus in Kansas.

26 Indiana, Statutes, 1933, Chaps. 4 and 257.