During the Senate floor session today, State Senator Sam Blakeslee brought up one of his bills in order to attempt a veto override. The override of SB 356 (2011), vetoed in September by Governor Brown, failed on a 13-22 vote.
Earl Warren
Although veto-overrides are threatened on occasion, it has been more than 30 years since the legislature exercised this ability. This is because veto-overrides are seen as a significant insult to the Governor and major disruption to the balance of power relationship between the three branches of government.
In the last 72 years, only six bills have had their vetoes overturned by the legislature. In his ten years in office, Earl Warren had only one veto overridden (in 1946). Governor Reagan had a single override as well (in 1974). In his previous two terms in office, Jerry Brown had a total of four vetoes overridden (in 1977 and 1979).
| Number of Veto Per Year Over-rides by Governor (since 1921) | |||
| Date | Governor | Majority Party (Senate / Assembly) |
Veto Overrides |
| 1979 | Jerry Brown (D) | Democrat / Democrat | 3 |
| 1977 | Jerry Brown (D) | Democrat / Democrat | 1 |
| 1974 | Ronald Reagan (R) | Democrat / Democrat | 1 |
| 1946 | Earl Warren (R) | Republican / Republican | 1 |
| 1941 | Culbert Olson (D) | Republican / Democrat | 8 |
| 1939 | Culbert Olson (D) | Republican / Democrat | 3 |
| 1933 | James Rolph (R) | Republican / Republican | 17 |
I’m crreuntly leaning against this idea. Our governor is weak enough already. This is probably his most important power, and we shouldn’t take it away.True, our governor is mishandling his power right now. But what about good governors in the future? That could be a different story. And in the case of the governor’s current power grabs, there are always other ways around it besides legislation. Like law suits.