Oregon State Senate

Oregon State Senate
Oregon Legislative Assembly

Type
Type	Upper house
Term limits	None
History
New session started	January 12, 2015
Leadership
President of the Senate	Peter Courtney(D) Since January 13, 2003
President pro Tempore	Ginny Burdick(D) Since January 10, 2011
Majority Leader	Diane Rosenbaum(D) Since January 10, 2011
Minority Leader	Ted Ferrioli(R) Since January 8, 2007
Structure
Seats	30

Political groups	Governing Party Democratic (18) Opposition Party Republican (12)
Length of term	4 years
Authority	Article IV, Oregon Constitution
Salary	$21,612/year + per diem
Elections
Last election	November 4, 2014 (14 seats)
Next election	November 8, 2016 (16 seats)
Redistricting	Legislative Control
Meeting place

State Senate Chamber Oregon State Capitol Salem, Oregon
Website
Oregon State Senate

The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 30 members of the State Senate, representing 30 districts across the state, each with a population of 114,000. The State Senate meets at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.

Oregon State Senators serve four-year terms without term limits. In 2002, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the decade-old Oregon Ballot Measure 3, that had restricted State Senators to two terms (eight years) on procedural grounds.^[1]

Like certain other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the federal U.S. Senate, the State Senate can confirm or reject gubernatorial appointments to state departments, commissions, boards, and other state governmental agencies.

The current Senate President is Peter Courtney of Salem.^[2]

Oregon, along with Arizona, Maine, and Wyoming, is one of the four U.S. states to have abolished the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, a position which for most upper houses of state legislatures and indeed for the U.S. Congress (with the Vice President) is the head of the legislative body and holder of the casting vote in the event of a tie. Instead, a separate position of Senate President is in place, removed from the state executive branch. If the chamber is tied, legislators must devise their own methods of resolving the impasse. In 2002, for example, Oregon's state senators entered into a power sharing contract whereby Democratic senators nominated the Senate President while Republican senators chaired key committees.^[3]

Milestones

Kathryn Clarke was the first woman to serve in Oregon's Senate. Women became eligible to run for the Oregon state legislature in 1914 and later that year Clarke was appointed to fill a vacant seat in Douglas county by her cousin, governor Oswald West. Following some controversy concerning whether West had the authority to appoint someone to fill the vacancy, Clarke campaigned and was elected by voters in 1915.^[4] She took office five years before the 19th Amendment to the US constitution protected the right of all US women to vote.

In 1982, Mae Yih became the first Chinese American elected to a state senate in the United States.

Composition

Affiliation	Party (Shading indicates majority caucus)		Total

	Democratic	Republican		Vacant
End of 75th legislature (2010)	18	12	30	0

Begin 76th (2011)	16	14	30	0
End (2012)		14	30	0

Begin 77th (2013)	16	14	30	0
End (2014)		14	30	0

Begin 78th (2015)	18	12	30	0
Latest voting share	7001600000000000000♠60%	7001400000000000000♠40%

Redistricting

During the 2011 legislative session, the House and Senate passed Senate Bill 989, which implemented new legislative districts for the 2012 elections and beyond.

Statewide view of 2012 Senate Districts

Portland Metro Area view of 2012 Senate Districts

78th Senate

Main article: 78th Oregon Legislative Assembly

The 78th Oregon Legislative Assembly, which holds its regular session from 2015 to 2016, has the following leadership:

President of the Senate: Peter Courtney (D-11 Salem)
President Pro Tem: Ginny Burdick (D-18 Portland)
Majority Leader: Diane Rosenbaum (D-21 Portland)
Minority Leader: Ted Ferrioli (R-30 John Day)

References

↑ Green, Ashbel S.; Lisa Grace Lednicer (January 17, 2006). "State high court strikes term limits". Oregonian (Portland, Oregon: Oregonian Publishing). pp. A1.
↑ Oregon Blue Book: Senate Presidents of Oregon
↑ National Conference of State Legislatures. "In Case of a Tie......". Retrieved November 3, 2010.
↑ Kimberly Jensen. "Kathryn Clarke". The Oregon Encyclopedia.

External links

Members of the Oregon State Senate

78th Legislative Assembly (2015-2016) President of the Senate: Peter Courtney (D) President pro Tempore: Ginny Burdick (D) Majority Leader: Diane Rosenbaum (D) Minority Leader: Ted Ferrioli (R)

Jeff Kruse (R) Herman Baertschiger, Jr. (R) Alan Bates (D) Floyd Prozanski (D) Arnie Roblan (D) Lee Beyer (D) Chris Edwards (D) Sara Gelser (D) Fred Girod (R) Jackie Winters (R) Peter Courtney (D) Brian Boquist (R) Kim Thatcher (R) Mark Hass (D) Chuck Riley (D) Betsy Johnson (D) Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D) Ginny Burdick (D) Richard Devlin (D) Alan Olsen (R) Diane Rosenbaum (D) Chip Shields (D) Michael Dembrow (D) Rod Monroe (D) Laurie Monnes Anderson (D) Chuck Thomsen (R) Tim Knopp (R) Doug Whitsett (R) Bill Hansell (R) Ted Ferrioli (R)

Democratic (18) Republican (12) Oregon Legislative Assembly Oregon House of Representatives Oregon State Senate

Legislatures of the United States

United States Congress	United States House of Representatives United States Senate

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Other legislatures	District of Columbia American Samoa (H, S) Guam Northern Mariana Islands (H, S) Puerto Rico (H, S) U.S. Virgin Islands

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 158889569 LCCN: n79099478 GND: 254604-8

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