California Government

California Government Structure

            How does this new country govern itself? What kind of governmental structure did they set up for themselves? Well if any of you have asked these questions then they are about to be answered.

            For the most part local government and state governments have been unaltered. The state constitutions mostly just transferred over to the new Republic of California. The main changes were made on the new federal level of governing.

            Executive Branch: The President of the Republic of California shall be the Head of State and Head of Government. The first President of California shall be appointed by the Constitutional Convention (the Convention elected Michael Stanton, Governor of the state of California, as the first President of California). Elections for President shall take place no later than 1 year after the ratification of the Constitution. The President will then be elected by popular vote by the citizens of the ROC. There will be no political primaries; rather there will be two rounds of voting. The first round will consist of voting for all qualified candidates at once. The top two finishers shall then meet head-to-head in a run-off election to decide the presidential winner.

            As the head of the executive branch, the President shall nominate a council of ministers to head the various executive offices, i.e. Minister of Defense, Minister of the Treasury, etc. The President’s nominations shall then be confirmed by the legislature.

            There is no Vice President of California. Instead the functions of the Vice President shall be in the form of a new office. The new office shall be the National Councilman. The Councilman will run in a National Election separate from that of the Presidential Election. They will be the Head of the Council of Governors. They do get a vote in the council and are the symbolic head of the council. The Councilman is the next in line of presidential succession, followed by the Speaker of the Assembly.

            Legislative Branch: The legislature of the Republic of California shall consist of two chambers (upper and lower chambers). The Lower Chamber shall be known as General Assembly. As of the writing of the Constitution, the Assembly shall have 100 seats and will be allocated as such. 50 seats shall be awarded to the states (20 seats for California and 10 each for Washington, Oregon, and Nevada) and the states shall decide their own ways of electing assembly members to their allocated seats. The other 50 seats will be up for national elections. Candidates shall run without the restriction of state affiliation. Voters will vote from amongst the full list of qualified candidates and will be allowed to vote for up to 5 candidates. The top 50 vote getters shall be awarded the open seats. The Assembly, once seated, will vote for a speaker and thus a head of the legislature. The role of the Assembly shall be relatively the same as the House of Representatives of the US. Seats shall be reallocated if need be (such as the addition of states). The Assembly holds the law making authority of the legislative branch.

            The Upper Chamber shall be known as the Council of Governors. The Council will be made up of the Governors of the states of California. At the writing of the Constitution there are 4 members of the Council (governors from California, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada). The National Councilman shall serve as the head of the Council and have full voting rights. The Council does not hold law making authority, but can recommend possible legislature to the Assembly. While they don’t hold the law making authority, all laws passed by the Assembly must be confirmed by the Council before being sent for Presidential approval. The Assembly shall overrule a Council veto only by a two-thirds majority vote.

            Judicial Branch: The Supreme Court of the Republic of California shall be the highest court in the ROC. The Supreme Court holds the same powers as their US counter-part. The members of the Court shall serve a life long term, unless they resign, retire, or are impeached. The original composition of the court shall be nine justices, 2 from each of the 4 states and 1 Chief Justice who shall be from the state of California. The justices shall be nominated by the President and affirmed by the Assembly.