Governor of Arkansas

The Governor of the State of Arkansas is the chief executive of the state and commander-in-chief of its military forces.

The current governor is Mike Beebe, who took office on January 9 2007.

Quailifications

To serve as Governor, one must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the United States, and have been a resident of the state for seven years prior to election.

History

The first state constitution, ratified in 1836, established four-year terms for governors and the requirement that they be residents of the state for ten years.cite web | url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2246 | title = Arkansas Constitutions | publisher = Encyclopedia of Arkansas | accessdate=2007-09-01] The fifth constitution in 1874, following the American Civil War and Reconstruction, limited the executive's power while increasing the legislative's, lowering gubernatorial terms to two years and changed the residency requirement to seven years. Amendment 63 to the Arkansas Constitution, passed in 1984, increased the terms of both governor and lieutenant governor to four years. A referendum in 1992 limited a governor to two consecutive four-year terms. [http://www.ustl.org/Current_Info/State_TL/gubernatorial.html]

Creation of Lt. Governor

Until 1925, should the office of Governor be rendered empty through death, resignation, removal, or other disability, the president of the state senate would act as governor, until such time as a new governor were elected or the disability removed, or the acting governor's senate term expired. This led to some situations where the governorship changed hands in quick succession, due to senate terms ending or new presidents of the senate being elected. For example, William Kavanaugh Oldham served only six days in 1913 before he was replaced as President of the Arkansas Senate. Should the president of the senate be similarly incapacitated, the next in line for the governorship was the Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives.

Amendment 6 to the state constitution, passed in 1914 but not recognized until 1925, created the office of lieutenant governor, to be elected at the same time as governor for the same term. In case of removal of the governor, the lieutenant governor now became acting governor.

List of Governors

*List of Governors of Arkansas

ee also

* Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe

References