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Lieutenant Governor Of Virginia




The office of Lieutenant Governor is of colonial origin and can be traced to the Virginia Council of London. The Council was appointed by the King , and in turn, the Council appointed the Lieutenant Governor or deputy. When the English crown forbade colonial Governor's absence from the colonies without leave in 1680 , it became the Council’s duty to designate or send a deputy who could exercise all the powers of the Governor under the written instructions of both the crown and the Governor. Virginia’s first Constitution, adopted in 1776 , provided a Council of State from which a President was annually selected from its members. The President acted as Lieutenant Governor in the case of the death, inability, or necessary absence of the Governor from the government. The Virginia Constitution of 1851 abolished the Governor’s Council of State and provided for the popular election of the Lieutenant Governor. Shelton Farrar Leake , from Albemarle County , was the first elected Lieutenant Governor, serving from 1852 - 1856 .


RECENT LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA


  • Mills E. Godwin Jr. , Democrat from Nansemond County 1962-1966 (Became Governor 1966 as a Democrat; became Governor for a second time in 1974 as a Republican).

  • Fred G. Pollard, from the City of Richmond 1966-1970

  • J. Sargeant Reynolds , Democrat from the City of Richmond 1970-1971 (Died in office)

  • Henry Howell , from the City of Norfolk 1971-1974 (Filled the unexpired term of Julian Sargeant Reynolds).

  • John N. Dalton , Republican from the City of Radford 1974-1978 (Became Governor in 1978).

  • .

  • Richard Joseph Davis, from the City of Portsmouth 1982-1986

  • Doug Wilder , Democrat from the City of Richmond 1986-1990: Virginia State Senator, Governor of Virginia, Mayor of Richmond, first African-American Governor of any state. (Became Governor in 1990).

  • ; National Treasurer for the Dean for America presidential campaign of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean , who in the 2004 Democratic Primary was seeking the nomination of that party for President Of The United States .

  • , Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush

  • . Governor of Virginia

  • , Hanover County Board Of Supervisors .



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