--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., Anton Sherwood <bronto@p...> wrote:

> "Andrew T. Patton" wrote:
> > . . . One this that I do know is that Virginia is a
> > commonwealth not a state (4 states are like this: Virginia,
> > Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Kentucky) which means the basis
> > of the state and government is different.
>
> er, how?
>
> i remember a friend's comment that the Commonwealth of Virginia (or
> possibly one of the others) has State Police.

Yes Virginia has a State Police (called surpisingly the Virginia
State Police) and all the other elements of a state. The difference
between a state and a commonweaths really is very small. The
difference comes from the orginal charter of the state which
indicates the state was founded by agreement of the people for the
common wealth (good) of the people. The outcome of this is that the
population of a commonweath are more in charge than in states or in
other words the goverment is a little weaker in a commonweath than in
states.

In reality of this is not really seen anymore but you see it in
elections where the voters decide a whole bunch of items that a state
would normally do by itself and that our Governor can not be reelected
(He can only serve non-consecutive terms). Virginia elections were
yesterday and showed another thing that makes Virginia an oddball, we
elect our Governor (Along with New Jersey) a year after Presidential
elections.

-Andrew