Gov. Rick Perry may have gotten only 39 percent of the vote in last year's election, but it was enough to win — and push to expand the power of his office and dare either the Legislature or state courts to do anything about it. The first signs of resistance came this week.

Texas has one of the weakest offices of governor in the nation, thanks to the state constitution enacted in 1876 by white Texans still seething over the rule of a Republican governor, Edmund Davis, during Reconstruction.

Still in effect, though often amended, that constitution does not invest all executive power in the governor, as the U.S. Constitution does in the president. Instead, it is split among several offices, most of them independently elected: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller and land commissioner. Only the secretary of state is appointed by the governor.

As state government grew, the governor was kept firmly leashed. In 1891, when the Railroad Commission was created, its three members were chosen by election, and they still are. When the Department of Agriculture was created by the Legislature in 1907, it was made (and remains) an elected office.

Over the decades, as the Legislature created agencies, it seldom gave the governor direct power to run them. Instead, it set up commissions and boards — for highways, human services, insurance and public utilities, for example — whose members were appointed by the governor but subject to Senate confirmation. The board or commission would run the agency or hire and fire an executive director.

The governor couldn't even fire most board members and commissioners at will. Terms were staggered, so an incoming governor usually faced a board or commission stacked with members picked by predecessors. A determined governor could pressure a commission, but not simply order it to do as he or she wished.

Two things have changed in the past 15 years to bolster the governor's authority.

One is that in reorganizing several major agencies, the Legislature gave the governor more direct authority over them. For example, insurance regulation used to be handled by a three-member appointed board; since 1993, there's been a single commissioner appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Another: The State Board of Education, an elected body, used to appoint the education commissioner; since 1995, the governor has made the appointment. Most health and human services agencies were put under a single commisioner appointed by the governor in 2003.

These executives are appointed by the governor to set terms — two or four years — and are subject to Senate confirmation. The governor is not free to fire them at will, but governors appoint loyalists, not independents. Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin, for example, used to work on Perry's staff.

Another thing that has happened is Rick Perry. He's been governor so long — six years — that all state boards and commissions are made up of people he appointed or reappointed. Having just won another four-year term, he's poised to dominate state agencies more than ever.

What has finally aroused attention, and some alarm, is Perry's aggressive use of executive orders. Two years ago, for example, he simply ordered the education commissioner to draft rules requiring local school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their funds on classroom instruction.

The commissioner — a Perry appointee — saluted and complied. Many agreed with the 65 percent rule, so few questioned his authority to require it.

In 2005, Perry also ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the State Office of Administrative Hearings to slash in half the time usually taken to process applications for power plant permits.

Environmental groups sued, and this week a state district judge in Austin said Perry likely had no authority to issue it.

A spokesman for the governor attacked the judge's politics ("liberal Austin judge"), but no announcement has been made on whether Perry will appeal.

But it's social and religious conservatives, the governor's political base, who are most enraged over a Perry executive order, one to require that all sixth-grade girls in public schools be immunized against a cancer-causing virus spread only by sexual contact. They see it as an invasion of parental rights.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Public Health voted 6-3 to override Perry's vaccine order. Five of the six "yes" votes came from Republicans, including Rep. Dianne White Delisi, whose daughter-in-law, Deidre Delisi, is the governor's chief of staff.

Still, Perry could ride out this storm and win. If the Legislature fails to follow up on the committee's challenge to the vaccine order before it must adjourn in May, Perry will be freer than ever to issue more executive orders. No state board or commission will resist.

On Friday, a group of parents challenged Perry's vaccine order in a Travis County state court. The ultimate appeal would go to the Texas Supreme Court, where five of the nine justices were first appointed by none other than Gov. Rick Perry.