Oregon State Senate

The Oregon State Senate chamber in the State Capitol.

The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the state-wide legislature for the U.S. 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 law, Oregon Ballot Measure 3 (1992), 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. Instead, a separate position of Senate President is in place, removed from the Oregonian executive branch.

1 Make-up of the State Senate
2 Latest elections
3 Senators of the 2007 Legislative Session
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Party affiliation		Members
	Democratic Party of Oregon	19
	Oregon Republican Party	11
	non-affiliated	0
Total		30
Majority		8

Main article: Oregon statewide elections, 2006#State Legislature

The latest elections for the Oregon State Senate occurred on November 7, 2006. 15 of the Senate's 30 seats were open for election. The Democratic Party retained their majority, with no loss or gain of seats for any party.

Senator Ben Westlund, whose seat was not up for election in 2006, announced his party change from non-affiliated to the Democratic Party shortly after the election. His switch resulted in an 19-11 majority for the Democrats in the 2007 legislative session. Senator Avel Gordly, who left the Democratic Party to become non-affiliated in 2006, rejoined the party in April 2008 in support of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.^[3] Gordly is not seeking reelection in 2008.

Party		Votes	Seats	Share of vote (%)
	Democratic	370,977	11	57.4
	Republican	264,564	4	40.9
	Libertarian Party of Oregon	2,663	0	.41
	non-affiliated	2,653	0	.41
	Constitution Party of Oregon	2,562	0	.39
	Write In/Others	2,153	0	.33
Total		645,572	15	100.0%

Senate President: Peter Courtney (D-11 Salem)
President Pro Tem: Margaret Carter (D-22 Portland)
Majority Leader: Kate Brown (D-21 Portland)
Minority Leader: Ted Ferrioli (R-30 John Day)

Oregon Senate districts outside the Willamette Valley.

Portland area Senate districts.

Willamette Valley Senate districts south of Portland area.

District	Name	Party
1-Roseburg	Jeff Kruse	Republican
2-Central Point	Jason Atkinson	Republican
3-Ashland	Alan C. Bates	Democrat
4-S. Lane/N. Douglas	Floyd Prozanski	Democrat
5-Coos Bay	Joanne Verger	Democrat
6-Springfield	Bill Morrisette	Democrat
7-Eugene	Vicki Walker	Democrat
8-Albany	Frank Morse	Republican
9-Molalla	Roger Beyer	Republican
10-Salem	Jackie Winters	Republican
11-Salem	Peter Courtney	Democrat
12-McMinnville	Gary George	Republican
13-Hillsboro	Larry George	Republican
14-Beaverton	Ryan Deckert	Democrat
15-Hillsboro	Bruce Starr	Republican
16-Scappoose	Betsy Johnson	Democrat
17-Beaverton	Brad Avakian (currently vacant^[4])	Democrat
18-Portland	Ginny Burdick	Democrat
19-Tualatin	Richard Devlin	Democrat
20-Canby	Kurt Schrader	Democrat
21-Portland	Kate Brown	Democrat
22-Portland	Margaret Carter	Democrat
23-Portland	Avel Gordly	Democrat
24-Portland	Rod Monroe	Democrat
25-Gresham	Laurie Monnes Anderson	Democrat
26-Mt. Hood	Rick Metsger	Democrat
27-Tumalo	Ben Westlund	Democrat
28-Klamath Falls	Doug Whitsett	Republican
29-Pendleton	David Nelson	Republican
30-John Day	Ted Ferrioli	Republican

^ Green, Ashbel S.; Lisa Grace Lednicer. "State high court strikes term limits", Oregonian, Portland, Oregon: Oregonian Publishing, 2006-01-17, pp. A1.
^ Oregon Blue Book: Senate Presidents of Oregon
^ The Associated Press. "To back Obama, Oregon lawmaker is back as Democrat". OregonLive.com.
^ Avakian was appointed Oregon Commissioner of Labor and Industries, spring 2008.

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