With new speaker and new faces, Legislature kicks off 2022 session

The Oregon House is presided over by a new speaker for the first time since 2013.

After receiving just one vote above the minimum needed, Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, was awarded the gavel as lawmakers convened Tuesday morning for a five-week session.

“We’re at a critical point in our recovery from the pandemic,” Rayfield said shortly after being sworn in. “During the next five weeks, we will have the opportunity to support the people and the communities that were impacted the most the last couple of years. We may have different perspectives on how to do that.”

Rayfield is in his fourth term in the House. He replaces long-time speaker Tina Kotek. The North Portland Democrat resigned her legislative seat last month to focus on her race for governor.

House Democrats voted behind closed doors in mid-January to throw their support behind Rayfield, who previously served as co-chair of the legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee.

Unlike caucus leadership positions, House speakers need a majority vote from the entire chamber to take power. Any member can be nominated.

On Tuesday, as expected, Democrats nominated Rayfield. Republicans followed by first nominating their caucus leader, Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville.

Then, Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond, nominated a second Democrat: Rep. Janelle Bynum of Happy Valley, to be speaker.

Bynum briefly challenged then-Speaker Kotek for the job last year, and publicly stated her interest once again when it became open this year. But with her fellow Democrats rallying around Rayfield, Bynum would have needed support from Republicans and some Democrats in order to win the job. If selected, she would have become Oregon’s first Black speaker.

“She’s a business owner and is in tune with her community,” said Zika in his nominating speech. “She’s at the forefront of all of our social and racial justice issues.”

By nominating Bynum, Zika created the possibility of Democrats splitting their votes, leading to a potential victory for Breese-Iverson despite being from the minority party.

In the end, however, just four lawmakers voted for Bynum: three Democrats, including Bynum, as well as Republican Zika. With a handful of Democrats absent, that gave Rayfield 32 votes, one more than the 31 needed to win the speakership. Breese-Iverson received 18 votes.

While Rayfield is new at the dais, plenty of others made their first appearance as sitting lawmakers.

In the House, that includes two members who took the oath of office early Tuesday morning: Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, and Rep. Nathan Sosa, D-Hillsboro. Both were appointed to vacant seats in the past week.

All told, there are six representatives who weren’t in the House when the final gavel fell on the 2021 session last June. Those appointed lawmakers include three Democrats and three Republicans. One Republican-held House seat, in the Canby area, remains vacant.

In the Senate, there are three new members, all Democrats. Two of them previously served in the House.

Tuesday also marked the beginning of Senate President Peter Courtney’s final regular session. The Salem Democrat announced last month that he won’t seek re-election this year, bringing an imminent end to his historically-long run as the Senate’s top officer.

Courtney did not mention his decision during brief remarks to senators Tuesday. But he maintained his typically cantankerous demeanor: “We were looking really good, but then we look like hell,” he grumbled when a fellow lawmaker goofed up a procedural move.

The 2022 session is also the first since the Legislature installed metal detectors at each entrance. Lawmakers, staffers and members of the public are now required to pass through the security checkpoints. It comes after lawmakers voted last year to ban guns at the Capitol, including those carried by people with concealed handgun permits.

As during the 2021 session, floor sessions will be held in-person and committee hearings will be held on virtual platforms.

Those committees have their work cut out for them. By the time the House and Senate adjourned Tuesday, lawmakers had introduced nearly 250 bills.

Most won’t make it out of committee. Those that do, will move quickly. The deadline for most committees to advance legislation to the floor comes in less than two weeks. The session itself must conclude by March 7.