Governor of Connecticut

Governor of Connecticut
Seal of the Governor
Incumbent Dannel Malloy since January 5, 2011
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Connecticut Governor's Residence
Term length	Four years
Inaugural holder	Jonathan Trumbull
Deputy	Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
Salary	$150,000 (2013)
Website	www.ct.gov/governor

The Governor of Connecticut is the elected head of the executive branch of Connecticut's state government. The current governor is Dan Malloy, who took office on January 5, 2011.

Connecticut is among the few U.S. states that includes its colonial governors of Connecticut Colony in an unbroken list of chief executives spanning over 350 years to the present day.

John Haynes became the first governor in 1639. The first incumbent after the Revolution, Jonathan Trumbull, is therefore numbered the sixteenth (16th) governor of Connecticut.

Connecticut was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and was admitted as a state on January 9, 1788. Before it declared its independence, Connecticut was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Like most early states, Connecticut had claims to western areas, but did not cede all of its claims during the formation of the country like the other states. It maintained its Western Reserve until 1800, at which time it was reassigned to the Northwest Territory.

There have been 68 governors of the state, serving 72 distinct spans in office. The longest terms in office were in the state's early years, when four governors were elected to nine or more one-year terms. The longest was that of the first governor, Jonathan Trumbull, who served over 14 years, but 7 of those as colonial governor; the longest-serving state governor — with no other position included in the term — was his son, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., who served over 11 years. The shortest term was that of Hiram Bingham III, who served only one day before resigning to take an elected seat in the U.S. Senate. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., is noted for a rare third party win in American politics, having been elected to a term in 1990 representing A Connecticut Party.