The Commonwealth of Virginia operates under a constitution that establishes a state government with three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch is led by the Governor, who is uniquely limited to serving a single consecutive four-year term.
The legislative branch is the Virginia General Assembly, which is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World, dating back to 1619. It is bicameral, consisting of a 40-member Senate and a 100-member House of Delegates.
Virginia has a unique local government structure. It contains 95 counties and 38 "independent cities." In Virginia, all cities are politically and administratively independent of the counties that surround them, a system not found in quite the same way anywhere else in the United States. This structure impacts everything from public schooling to local taxation.