The governor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government.

The governor also shares power with other statewide executive officers, who manage other state government agencies.

This can give the governor considerable influence in the body which will often compromise on issues with him in exchange for a special legislative session.

The governor also has the ability to grant a pardon or commutation of sentence of any person convicted of a crime in the state, except in cases of treason or impeachment.

[2] The governor serves a four-year term beginning on the date he is sworn into office; inauguration day is the second Monday in January.

[2] The governor maintains an office on the first floor of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, and from there he manages all of the state's agencies that are under his jurisdiction.

The first governor of Indiana, Jonathan Jennings, was elected in August 1816 and assumed office in December of that year.

Jonathan Jennings was the first governor to have an attempted impeachment brought against him in response to his actions as an agent of the federal government during the negotiations of the Treaty of St. Mary's in 1819, illegal under Indiana's constitution.

The governor was not given complete authority over the militia, his term was set at three years, and most of his actions could be overridden by the General Assembly.

By comparison, the Supreme Court was made almost entirely independent, and the General Assembly assumed many of the powers taken from the governor.

The issued ended when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the legislature, again returning to it final authority over hiring state employees.

The Executive Reorganization Act was passed, returning the governor to a considerable level of appointment power.

[13] The legislature responded by trying to create a merit system for public offices, but it was largely unable to effectively enforce it given the new scope of government agencies.

[14] The battle with the governor continued until 1941 when the legislature rescinded the Executive Reorganization Act and replaced it with the State Administration Act, which placed most of the government under the control of elected commissioners and reduced the governor's practical executive authority to commander of the militia and the executor of legislation.

The court ruled for the first time that the governor was in fact the Chief Executive of the state, and that the legislature could pass no law that infringed upon that right.

The state courts were again made appointive, but the selection of the candidates was granted to the court-dominated Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission.

[14] A third amendment granted the power to prepare a budget to a State Budgetary Agency, which was run by officials appointed by the governor.

[15] Despite gaining considerable power during the mid-twentieth-century, Indiana's governor remains fairly weak compared to his counterparts in other states.

[15] This led to a fistfight during the term of Claude Matthews, who was locked out of the House chambers to prevent him from returning a bill in time.

[16] The legislature can override a veto with a simple majority, as opposed to a supermajority that is required federally and in most other states.

The legislature still exercises final control over the hiring of state employees, but given the large size of the government and the short legislative sessions, they are unable to make any considerable impact other than their continued advocacy for an expanded merit system.

[17] During the state's early history, vetoes were seldom employed by governors primarily because they were seen as only symbolic since the General Assembly could override them with only a simple majority.

[17] Governor James Whitcomb was the first to make significant use of the power and vetoed a record of fifteen bills during a single legislative session.

[17] Observers and historians attribute this to the short length of legislative sessions, which often do not allow enough time for a large number of bills to pass through both houses twice.

Another factor is that legislators of the same party as the governor typically refuse to override his veto, even in cases where they supported the bill originally.

He twice delivered speeches to a joint session where he harangued them for what he perceived to be corruption, accusing them of taking bribes from the Bank of Indiana.

[22] Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison was appointed to office at age twenty-seven, making him the youngest executive.

James B. Ray, elevated at thirty-one and reelected at thirty-two, was the youngest governor to be elected to office.

Paul V. McNutt, Ralph F. Gates, and George N. Craig were leaders of the American Legion, whose national headquarters is in Indianapolis.