NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Law and Government of Colorado

Like the majority of the states, Colorado's current constitution provides for three branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1775x1132, 909 KB) Summary Colorado state capitol in downtown Denver. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1775x1132, 909 KB) Summary Colorado state capitol in downtown Denver. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal A state of the United States is any one of the fifty subnational entities referred to... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area Ranked 8th - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 kmÂ²) - Width 280 miles (451 km) - Length 380 miles (612 km) - % water 0. ...

The governor heads the state's executive branch. The current Governor of Colorado is Bill Ritter (D). Colorado's other elected executive offices are 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 which serve four-year terms. Members of the Colorado State Board of Education and the Regents of the Universities of Colorado are elected from seven districts coterminous with Colorado's US House districts, plus one seat elected by voters statewide, each of whom serve six-year terms. The Governor of Colorado is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Colorado. ... Bill Ritter may refer to: Bill Ritter (news anchor), a New York City news anchor Bill Ritter (politician), Governer-Elect of Colorado Category: ... The lieutenant governor of Colorado is the second-highest-ranking member of the executive department of the Colorado state government, below only the Governor of Colorado. ...

The legislative body is the General Assembly made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives has 65 members and the Senate has 35. Currently, Democrats are in control of both chambers of the General Assembly. The 64th Colorado General Assembly is the first to be controlled by the Democrats in forty years. The current Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives is Andrew Romanoff (D-Denver), and the current President of the Colorado Senate is Joan Fitz-Gerald (D-Boulder). The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... Andrew Romanoff is a Democratic politician and the current Speaker of the House in the Colorado General Assembly. ... Joan Fitz-Gerald is the current President of the Colorado State Senate. ...

The judicial branch is headed by the Colorado Supreme Court, whose rulings can only be overturned by a federal court. As well as the Colorado Supreme Court, the State judicial branch is made up of the Colorado Court of Appeals, which hears cases brought to it by municipal courts. State judges and justices are appointed by the Governor, then elected to ten-year terms. The current Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court is Mary Mullarkey. The Colorado Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Colorado. ...

Colorado is considered a very independent state politically, having elected 17 Democrats and 12 Republicans to the governorship in the last 100 years. The state supported Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, and the Republican presidential nominees in 1996 and 2000. Recently, the state appears to be going more towards the center. George W. Bush won the state's 9 electoral votes in 2004 by a margin of 5 percentage points with 51.7% of the vote, considerably less than the 9% margin Bush won by in 2000, however this can be largely attributed to the 5% of the vote Ralph Nader won in 2000. Nearly all of these votes went to Democrat John Kerry in 2004. [1]. Democrats also gained in every open seat race in the state, picking up a seat in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Democrats are strongest in metropolitan Denver, Boulder, and southern Colorado (including Pueblo, and a few western ski resort counties). Republicans are strongest in the rural plains region, Colorado Springs, the Western Slope (including Grand Junction), and some of the Denver suburbs. The fastest growing parts of the state, particularly Douglas, Elbert and Weld counties in metro Denver, are strongly Republican. The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Democratic Party. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... Media:rofl. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney, multi-millionaire and political activist. ... Al Gore (born December 11, 1943) is a Vietnam Veteran and the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ... A senate is a deliberative body, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box: House of Representatives is a name used for legislative bodies in many countries. ... The Denver Metropolitan Area (population 2,179,240 in 2000) has Denver, Colorado with a population of about 500,000 as its core. ... The City of Boulder (, Mountain Time Zone) is a home rule municipality located in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. ... Pueblo is a city in Pueblo County in southern Colorado. ... Colorado Springs is a middle-sized city, located just east of the geographic center of the state of Colorado in the United States. ... The Western Slope of Colorado refers the region of the US state of Colorado west of the Rocky Mountains. ... Grand Junction is the name of several places in the United States of America: Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction, Iowa Grand Junction, Massachusetts, a railroad junction north of Boston Grand Junction, Michigan This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... Douglas County is a suburban county located in the southern portion of the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Colorado. ... Elbert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. ... Weld County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. ...

The two U.S. Senators from Colorado are Wayne Allard (R), and Ken Salazar (D). The state is represented by three Democrats and four Republicans in the United States House of Representatives. Seal of the U.S. Senate The Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Alan Wayne Allard (born December 2, 1943) is a United States Senator from Colorado and a member of the Republican Party. ... Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American politician, rancher, and environmentalist from the U.S. state of Colorado. ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is the lower of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ...

Colorado is made up primarily of transplanted citizens, and this is illustrated by the fact that Governor Ritter is the first native-born Coloradan to hold the post since 1975 when John David Vanderhoof left office. Ritter is also the first native Coloradan to be elected to the Governorship in nearly fifty years, with the last being fellow Democrat Stephen L.R. McNichols in 1958 (Vanderhoof ascended from the Lieutenant Governorship when John Arthur Love was given a position in Richard Nixon's administration in 1973.) 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... John David Vanderhoof (Born May 27, 1922 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado) served as Governor of Colorado from 1973-1975 as a Republican. ... Stephen Lucid Robert McNichols, Colorados Democrat Governor from 1957 to 1963, was born in Denver on March 7, 1914. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nixon redirects here. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...