This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The Oregon Legislature is about to start its 82^nd session.  So what?

Well, for me as a retired lobbyist, the start of any legislative session was a time for this emotion:  Foreboding.

I worried that legislators, concerned about their own issues, would ignore what my firm’s clients had to say about various proposals, including those that would affect them directly.

Was it worth it to worry?  Probably not.

Because, with colleagues in my firm, CFM Strategic Communications (now called CFM Advocates), I found ways to represent client interests, with, I add with some modesty, effectiveness.

When I was a lobbyist, Oregon’s Constitution called for biennial legislative sessions – a regular session in the odd-numbered year. 

That changed in 2010 when voters approved annual sessions, a change I opposed, but one that passed anyway as legislators sought, they said, to put the Legislature on more even footing with the Executive Branch.

Whatever.

Here are a few issues as the Legislature anticipates the start of the session on January 17:

• Back in the building:  Committee hearings, which are open to public participation, will be in person for the first time since 2020, when much of the body’s work moved on-line in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, a remote option also will remain.

Because of ongoing construction, the public will only be able to enter through the main doors on State Street, across from Willamette University.

That will allow access to Hearing Rooms A-F on the first floor, and the legislative offices in the Capitol wings.  There will be limited access to the House and Senate third-floor galleries on a first-come, first-served basis.

The renovations are scheduled to be done by January 2025, in time for the start of the legislative session that year.

• New leadership:  For the first time in 20 years, the Oregon Senate will have a new president.

Senator Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, will take over the position from Senator Peter Courtney, who has held the job since 2003.  Courtney, D-Salem, is Oregon’s longest-serving legislator, with 38 years as an elected official. He was known, some say, for his emphasis on bi-partisanship. 

Wagner is the current Senate majority leader.

Already, Republicans have said they are not pleased with Wagner’s selection.

“Senator Wagner has shown he is untrustworthy, deeply partisan, and doesn’t have the necessary skills to run the Senate in a bi-partisan fashion. There are no votes in the Senate Republican caucus for Senator Wagner,” Senator Tim Knopp, the Senate’s Republican leader, said in a statement.

Surprising to me that comments are so negative even before the session convenes.

In the House, current speaker Dan Rayfield was re-elected to the position.  He is relatively new, having taken over the job earlier this year after Tina Kotek resigned to focus on her successful campaign for governor.

In the minority party, Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson of Prineville was re-elected House Republican leader; and Knopp of Bend was re-elected Senate Republican leader.

• New governor:  Oregon will have a new governor for the first time since 2015, when Kate Brown was sworn into office.  Brown took over the last two years of Governor John Kitzhaber’s term after Kitzhaber stepped down during an ethics investigation.

The top job remains under Democrat control, as it has since 1987, the last year of Republican Vic Atiyeh’s eight years in office.  [I had the privilege of working for Atiyeh, a class act.  It was a highlight of my time in state government.]

Governor-Elect Kotek has said she won’t be a copy of Brown, one of the most unpopular governors in the nation.  She has said she will work to gain the trust of those who didn’t vote for her by welcoming all perspectives to her administration.

• Supermajorities lost:  Democrats held on to their majorities in both the House and Senate in November.  But they lost both supermajorities.

Oregon requires a three-fifths vote in each chamber, or a supermajority, to pass bills that raise taxes.  That means Democrats now need at least one Republican to vote with them to pass new taxes.

• Harder to walk out:  Voters overwhelmingly approved Ballot Measure 113 in November, making it harder for the minority party to block bills it doesn’t like by leaving the Capitol.

Under Oregon’s quorum requirements, two-thirds of a chamber’s lawmakers must be present in order to do business.

The measure prevents lawmakers from running for re-election if they have 10 or more unexcused absences in a single legislative session. It also prevents those lawmakers from winning a seat in the opposite chamber.

Republicans walked out in 2019 and 2020 to kill Democrat proposals, including bills to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.  In 2021, Republicans walked out to protest Brown’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Democrats have used the tactic, too.  In 2001, House Democrats walked out for five days to prevent Republicans from passing a re-districting plan.

It is possible to have two views of the “walkout tactic.”  On the con side, those who walk out were elected, if you will, to “walk in and stay in.”  On the pro side, sometimes those in the minority party who walk out figure that there is no other way to express their viewpoint if the majority party ignores them.

• Key dates:  December 21, 2022 was the deadline to file bills prior to the session.  Those bills can be taken up as soon as the Legislature convenes, putting them first in line for committee work.

On January 9, Kotek will take her oath of office.  New and returning members also will be sworn in, including those in districts with boundaries that were re-drawn before the 2022 election.

The session begins January 17, and, by statute, will last no more than 160 days, or roughly six months.

So, in all of this, I am very to be sitting in La Quinta, California, in retirement.  No worries here, except my golf score.

But, I add this.  A legislative session, with all its pros and cons, is a prime virtue of representative government.  For the moment at least, I will take a positive look at what the next five or six months will hold for all of us in Oregon.