As Governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger appoints more people to positions of power than any other state in the country.
The person who runs Virginia's public schools was once elected by voters. So was the treasurer, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Commissioner of Agriculture. All those statewide elected positions were eliminated by Governor Harry Bryd in the 1920s by something he called the short ballot.
John Milliken at George Mason University says it was an effort opposed by the Ku Klux Klan.
"The treasurer was a Catholic, and the Klan had fought his reelection and was confident it could beat him. So ,it did not want to risk taking it away from the voters," Milliken notes. "And, so, they were really the leaders of the opposition."
The opposition failed though, and voters approved the short ballot in the late 1920s. But those appointed Cabinet secretaries still have to be confirmed, says UVA scholar and politics analyst Jeff Schapiro.
"These are appointments that are subject to the confirmation, the approval, by the state legislature, the General Assembly. And as Virginia's politics have become more sharply partisan," Schapiro notes, "any number of gubernatorial appointees have been rejected."
Voters used to have eight statewide offices until the short ballot. Now there are only three.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
