The second half of Porter's term was one of the uncommon times in Indiana's history where the legislature was completely controlled by a party hostile to the governor. Typical to such occasions, the assembly began to reign in the governor whose weak constitutional position made it difficult to resist. One of their first acts was to revoke all of the governor's appointment powers. He vetoed the bill on its first passage, but the assembly quickly overrode it, taking the responsibility for appointing all board members in the state, a power the governor had held since the Civil War. They also began to enact legislation designed to weaken Republican power across the state, first by creating a state board to manage the newly formed Indianapolis metropolitan police department, taking away control from the Republican-controlled city government. Along with other restrictive measures placed on the governor, they weakened the executive office to its lowest point in the history of the state. Nearly fifty years would pass before governors began to regain their former power.