The closest thing to a political lull in Oregon politics is starting this week.

While lame duck lawmakers hold “informational” committee meetings on favored topics in Salem, the real business of legislative government is on hiatus until Jan. 9.

That’s when Gov.-elect Tina Kotek will take the oath of office, succeeding Gov. Kate Brown in the state’s top job. House and Senate candidates who won election in November will be sworn into office as well. There will be votes to select the presiding officers in the two chambers.

Kotek can get started, filling out her administration. But everyone else goes home.

On Jan. 17, the legislators return to Salem for the 160-day “long session” that will include drawing-up a new two-year state budget.

Lawmakers will find a changed political landscape, but also a seismic shift aimed at keeping the Capitol itself from toppling over.

The Oregon State Capitol’s historic art deco main building, which opened in 1938, is going through a major overhaul to try to keep it together when and if a 9.0 earthquake occurs along the Cascadia Subduction Zone just off the Pacific Coast. Since the territorial capitol burned in 1855, and the building used before the Capitol also went up in flames in 1935, preparing the seat of Oregon government to have a better chance of survival in a natural calamity seems historically prudent.

This will be the first session of the legislature with the capitol open to the public since 2020. The building was ordered closed in April 2020 just after the session ended in a walkout by Republicans over a carbon cap-and-trade bill. 

But the building remains a work in process – one that cancelled the traditional Christmas festivities this year. The work has also evicted the governor’s office into the nearby state archives and scattered, other executive offices around Salem. All the work is scheduled to be completed to be done by January 2025.

So, visitors are again welcome to visit whatever is open in the meantime, but how much they will be able to see will be a moving target for the next two years.

“Due to construction related closures, reduced occupancy limits, and higher than average foot-traffic, visitors should anticipate some delays or potential wait times to enter the Capitol,” said Stacy Nalley, the public liaison for the capitol overhaul.

Inside, the political mix has changed too.  

Since 2015, the top three political leaders in Salem had been Gov. Kate Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland. That stability – or at least familiarity – is gone. .

Brown had been in office since February 2015 when she took over the state’s top job following the resignation of Gov. John Kitzhaber amid allegations of influence peddling in his office. She won a special election in 2016 to finish Kitzhaber’s term, then won a full four-year term of her own in 2018. Because of the large portion of Kitzhaber’s term that she filled, Brown was barred from running for re-election in 2022.

Kotek was House speaker since 2013, the longest tenure in state history, when she resigned in 2021 to run for — and win — the governorship in 2022. Coming in second against Kotek was former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, who also resigned to run for governor. She too will be absent from the House in 2023.

Courtney, who has been around long enough to have a bridge named after him, is retiring. He had been Senate president since 2003 – during the terms of three governors: Ted Kulongoski, Kitzhaber and Brown.

Gone too are two straight elections — covering four years — that gave Democrats a legislative supermajority in the both chambers, able to pass taxes and other financial bills without any Republican help. Democrats hold a 35-25 majority in the House. The Senate has 17 Democrats, 12 Republicans and one independent who votes most often with the GOP.

The party caucuses have already selected majority (Democrats) and minority (Republican) leaders.

House Majority Leader Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, and House Minority Leader Vikkie Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, will be beginning their first sessions leading their parties. 

In the Senate, sophomore Sen. Kate Lieber, D-Beaverton, leapfrogged over more senior members to win the caucus vote for majority leader. While Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, has been Senate minority leader only since 2021, he’s a veteran Salem presence, having served in the House from 1995 to 2005, including a stint as House Majority Leader when the GOP held sway in the chamber.

In the House, Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, has been nominated by the majority Democrats to continue as House speaker, a role he won last year after Kotek’s departure. Sen. Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, is the Senate Democrat’s choice as the first new president in two decades.

Political bad feelings have already surfaced in the Senate even before the first roll call. Knopp and Republicans had hoped to reach a 15-15 tie in the chamber that would require power sharing between the two parties. Despite a half-dozen intensely close races, the Democrats won 17 seats, leading to the announcement that the party would nominate Wagner. 

While only party members choose caucus leaders, the chief officers of the chambers — senate president and house speaker — are officially voted on by all lawmakers. 

“I look forward to working with my colleagues to build on our culture of inclusion and openness — across the aisle and across the state — to make sure that Oregonians across the state feel represented and supported by the work we do,” Wagner said.

Knopp issued a broadside at Democrats, saying Republicans should have had “input” on the choice given the closeness of races and if Democrats wanted a bipartisan spirit in the Senate.

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