 When he was campaigning out of state, which was often in late 1979 and early 1980, Mike Curb, a Republican who was then serving as Lieutenant Governor of California often used his position as acting governor to veto legislation, promulgate executive orders, issue proclamations, and to do other things that Brown would not likely have done had he been present in the state.This eventually resulted in litigation, much of which went in Curb's favor.Powers of an acting governor had previously been questioned in the mid-1970s in Kentucky.