This content was published: June 25, 2009. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
K-12 imbroglio leaes Legislature in limbo
Photos and story by Dana Haynes
I had predicted that the final gavel-fall of the 2009 session – known as sine die – would take place at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 25. Today.
That, of course, was before the K-12 budget imbroglio: the governor’s veto, the Senate’s inability (at first) to overcome said veto, the Senate finally overturning said veto and, today, the House’s inability to overturn said veto.
Sigh.
This thing could well stretch through the weekend now.
No matter how badly things go these next few days, nothing will match the end of the 2005 session, which began at 10 in the morning and stretched until 8 a.m. the next day. I was the bureau chief of the Statesman Journal’s Capitol Bureau and I staggered my crew’s starting times, because we predicted the session would run late into the night.
We didn’t know that “late into the night” would translate into “early the next morning.”
I stayed up the whole night, blogging about every internecine twist and turn. A handful of die-hard politicos later told me that got up during the night to check my posts, and to see how good or bad their next day was going to be.
This session won’t be anywhere near that draumatic. So for those of you feeling all angst-y over this brouhaha: Relax. This, too, shall pass.
dana
About Dana Haynes
Dana Haynes, joined PCC in 2007 as the manager of the Office of Public Affairs, directing the college's media and government relations. Haynes spent the previous 20 years as a reporter, columnist and editor for Oregon newspapers, including ... more »