Even though party control isn't shifting at the Oregon State Capitol, there will be a lot of new faces. Nearly a quarter of Oregon House members decided not to seek re-election this year. But very few seats in the Oregon Legislature changed party hands during Tuesday's election.
In the Oregon House, Democrats appear to have maintained their 35-to-25 seat advantage. In the Oregon Senate, Republicans appear to have broken the Democrats' supermajority by picking up one seat.
That means Democrats in both chambers will need at least one Republican to cross the aisle if they want to raise taxes. That could factor in to discussions over a possible transportation funding package, which will likely include a hike in the gas tax.
But that may have been the case anyway.
If Democrats had picked up one or twos seats and had supermajorities in both chambers, they'd likely still have to get buy-in from Republicans to have something that would withstand a challenge at the ballot.
Copyright 2016 Northwest News Network
