A time of change in the Oregon House

by NW Spotlight

There’s a lot of turnover taking place in the Oregon House. Rep. Chris Harker (D-Beaverton) and Rep. Vicki Berger (R-Salem) were two of the latest to announce that they were not planning to run for re-election to the Oregon House in 2014.

Some state representatives are not going to be running for re-election to the Oregon House because they are running for other political offices, like Republicans Kevin Cameron, Jason Conger, Tim Freeman and Dennis Richardson, or Democrats Jules Bailey and Sara Gelser.

Others are just taking a break without announcing a run for other political office, like Republicans Vicki Berger and Bruce Hanna, or Democrat Chris Harker.

The departing Republicans include much of the leadership from recent years. Rep. Bruce Hanna has previously served as House Co-Speaker and House Republican Leader, Rep. Kevin Cameron has previously served as House Republican Leader, Rep. Tim Freeman has previously served as House Republican Whip, and Rep. Vicki Berger is the current House Republican Whip.

In the current Legislature, Republicans are in the minority in the House and the Senate, but Democrats don’t have a super-majority in either chamber. In 2011-2012, Republicans and Democrats had a 30-30 split in the Oregon House, and Democrats were the majority in the Senate, but without a super-majority. In 2009-2010, Democrats had a super-majority in both the House and the Senate, which meant that they could raise taxes without a single Republican vote. That’s when Democrats passed the taxes that went on to become Measures 66 & 67.

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