Government of Virginia

The government of Virginia combines the three branches of authority in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The current Governor of Virginia is Terry McAuliffe. The State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson, and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785. Virginia currently functions under the 1971 Constitution of Virginia. It is the Commonwealth's seventh constitution. Under the Constitution, the government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

The statewide elected officials are:

All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc.) and take office in January of the following year. Virginia is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years (the others are Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey). The last gubernatorial election was in 2013, and the next will occur in 2017.

The governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as commander-in-chief of its militia. The Constitution does not allow a governor to succeed himself in office (though a governor is allowed to serve multiple non-consecutive terms). The Lieutenant Governor, who is not elected on the same ticket as the governor, serves as president of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the governor. The Lieutenant Governor is allowed to run for reelection. The Attorney General is chief legal advisor to the governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the Commonwealth and the head of the Department of Law. The attorney general is second in the line of succession to the governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes governor.

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