Government of Colorado
The Constitution of the State of Colorado provides for three branches of government: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branches.[1]
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Constitution and law[edit]
The Constitution of Colorado provides derives its authority from the sovereignty of the people and is the foremost source of state law.[2][3][4] In addition to providing for voting,[5][6] the people of Colorado have reserved initiative of laws and referendum of laws enacted by the legislature to themselves[7][7] and provided for recall of office holders.[8]
Legislature[edit]
The legislative body of Colorado is the Colorado General Assembly made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate. Members of the House are elected for two year terms from single-member, equal population districts. Approximately half of the members of the state senate are elected each two years to four year terms from single-member, equal population districts. The House of Representatives has 65 members and the Senate has 35 for a total of 100 legislators in Colorado.[citation needed]
Currently, Democrats are in control of the Senate and House. The 64th Colorado General Assembly was the first to be controlled by the Democrats in forty years, as the Republican Party traditionally held control of the state government. Colorado now being a swing state has seen increased competitiveness and consequently, variation in partisan control of the statehouse from election to election. The current Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives is Mark Ferrandino, and the current President of the Colorado Senate is John Morse.[9][10][11]
Executive[edit]
The Governor of Colorado heads the state's executive branch. The current governor is John Hickenlooper (D). Colorado's other statewide elected executive officers are the Lieutenant Governor of Colorado (elected on a ticket with the Governor), Secretary of State of Colorado, Colorado State Treasurer, and Attorney General of Colorado, all of whom serve four-year terms.
There are also elected members of the Colorado State Board of Education and the Regents of the University of Colorado are elected from districts coterminous with Colorado's congressional districts or at large. As a result, the Governor does not have direct management authority over either the Department of Education or any of the state's institutions of higher education.
Most crimes in Colorado are prosecuted by a district attorney. One district attorney is elected for each of the state's 22 judicial districts in a partisan election. The state attorney general also has power to prosecute certain crimes, and in rare circumstances a special prosecutor may be appointed to prosecute a crime on a case by case basis. Municipal ordinance violations are prosecuted by city attorneys.
The executive branch of Colorado state government comprises 19 departments:
- Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) website
- Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) website
- Colorado Department of Education (CDE) website
- Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (CDHCPF) website
- Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) website
- Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) website
- Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) website
- Colorado Department of Law and the Office of the Attorney General (CDOL) website
- Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) website
- Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) website
- Colorado Department of Natural Resources (CDNR) website
- Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA) website
- Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) website
- Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS) website
- Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) website
- Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) website
- Colorado Department of State (DOS) website
- Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) website
- Colorado Department of the Treasury (CDT) website
Judiciary[edit]
The judiciary of Colorado is defined by Article VI of the Colorado Constitution as well as the law of Colorado. The various courts include:
- the Colorado Supreme Court;
- the Colorado Court of Appeals;
- the Colorado District Courts for each of the 22 judicial districts;
- the Colorado County Courts for each of Colorado's 64 counties;
- the Colorado Water Courts; and
- the Municipal Courts.
The administration of the state judicial system is the responsibility of the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as its executive head, and is assisted by several other commissions. In Denver, County Courts and Municipal Courts are integrated and administratively separate from the state court system.
Administrative divisions[edit]
Colorado is divided into 64 counties. Counties are important units of government in Colorado since the state has no secondary civil subdivisions, such as townships. Two of these counties, the City and County of Denver and the City and County of Broomfield, have consolidated city and county governments.
Colorado municipalities operate under one of five types of municipal governing authority:
- 2 consolidated city-counties, Denver and Broomfield
- 61 cities and 35 towns that are home rule municipalities
- 12 statutory cities
- 160 statutory towns
- 1 territorial charter municipality
Colorado law makes relatively few distinctions between a city and a town. A municipality may extend into multiple counties.
Politics[edit]
Colorado has elected 17 Democrats and 12 Republicans to the governorship in the last 100 years. Incumbent Governor John Hickenlooper, who was elected in 2010, is a Democrat, and his predecessor, Governor Bill Ritter, who won election in 2006 is also a Democrat, though his predecessor Bill Owens is a Republican.
The state's electoral votes went to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, Republican Bob Dole in 1996, Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, and Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The people of the state of Colorado are additionally represented in the federal government of the United States by two United States Senators and seven Congressional Representatives. Of Colorado's seven members of the United States House of Representatives, four are Republicans and three are Democrats following the 2010 election. The Senators were Mark Emery Udall (D) and Michael Farrand Bennet (D).[12] The Representatives were Diana Louise DeGette (D), Jared Schutz Polis (D), Scott Tipton (R), Cory Gardner (R), Douglas L. "Doug" Lamborn (R), Michael "Mike" Coffman (R), and Edwin George "Ed" Perlmutter (DD).
References[edit]
- ^ "Constitution of the State of Colorado". The State of Colorado. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
- ^ Article II of the Constitution of Colorado on Justia.Com, accessed September 21, 2010
- ^ Section 1, Article II, Constitution of Colorado
- ^ Section 2, Article II, Constitution of Colorado
- ^ Section 5, Article II, Constitution of Colorado
- ^ Article VII, Constitution of Colorado
- ^ a b Section 1, Article V, Constitution of Colorado
- ^ Article XXI, Constitution of Colorado
- ^ "The Denver Post – Colorado House Democrats pick Ferrandino for speaker, historic first for gays".
- ^ "CO – Election Results – Colorado Secretary of State".
- ^ "State House 2012 Election Results – Denver Post".
- ^ Colorado Governor Bill Ritter appointed Michael Bennet to serve the remaining two years of United States Senator Ken Salazar term of office which was left vacant on 2009-01-20, when new United States President Barack Obama appointed the Colorado Senator to serve as his Secretary of the Interior.
External links[edit]
- State of Colorado government website
- Colorado at Ballotpedia
- Colorado at Judgepedia
- Colorado at Sunshine Review
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