Senate bids farewell to Peter Courtney, longest-serving president in Oregon history – Oregon Capital Chronicle

Peter Courtney had one last message for his colleagues as he presided over his last Senate session Friday: Take care of one another. 

The Senate’s acknowledged motive for convening Friday was confirming two appointees to state boards, however the session’s true goal was saying goodbye to Courtney, the eccentric Salemite whose 20 years as Senate president made him the longest-serving legislative officer in Oregon historical past. 

“In my 45 years of politics, I’ve been damage,” Courtney mentioned. “I’ve been offended. I’ve had nasty issues achieved to me and I’ve seen so much. However I have to say alongside the way in which someplace I received blessed.”

Courtney’s retirement on the finish of the yr marks the tip of greater than 4 many years of public service in Oregon, his adopted state. He stepped off a Greyhound bus in Salem in 1969 with a job supply to clerk for an Oregon choose, spent two years residing in a room on the native YMCA and was elected to the Salem Metropolis Council in 1974.

He served within the Oregon Home of Representatives from 1981 to 1999, minus a four-year stretch between 1985 and 1989 when he made unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Home and Oregon Senate. He was elected to the Oregon Senate in 1998 and has been Senate president since 2003. 

Courtney informed senators Friday that considered one of his greatest fears was that he wouldn’t be capable of thank legislative employees, his household and others sufficient for a way they helped him. 

“You possibly can say thanks, however I can’t thank people or teams sufficient for what they’ve achieved for me,” he mentioned. 

Courtney urged senators to recollect a quote attributed to cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, that the earliest signal of civilization within the fossil file is a femur that had been damaged, then healed. A damaged leg means loss of life within the animal kingdom, and a healed femur signifies that one other particular person cared for the one who fell.  

“We’re all our greatest once we serve others,” Courtney mentioned. 

Senators say goodbye

As Courtney and different senators spoke, loud thumps, clangs and the droning of energy instruments echoed from the closed hallways exterior the Senate chamber. The Capitol is in the course of a multi-year, $506 million building venture to arrange the 1938 constructing and its 1977 addition for an overdue earthquake within the Cascadia Subduction Zone. 

Courtney has lengthy championed efforts to retrofit faculties and emergency amenities for seismic exercise, and he pushed for the Capitol renovations for years. Sen. Rob Wagner, a Democrat from Lake Oswego who fellow Democrats tapped to succeed Courtney as president, mentioned lawmakers will consider Courtney and his work as they hear building noises over the subsequent few years. 

Wagner, who was a legislative staffer and lobbyist earlier than he was appointed to the Senate in 2018, mentioned he remembers how the phrase “Peter goes to talk” would convey staffers working to listen to Courtney take the ground. 

“Folks could be stacked three-deep within the gallery simply to listen to the argument he was advancing and the way in which he approached his craft,” Wagner mentioned. “All of us are higher legislators, we’re higher human beings and the state of Oregon is stronger on account of your management and repair.” 

Senate Secretary Lori Brocker mentioned her relations in Norway have a phrase, “takk for alt,” that match the day’s unhappy however grateful temper. It interprets to “thanks for the whole lot,” however in a deep and profound sense. It’s used to have a good time lives well-lived and individuals who have achieved a lot, she mentioned. 

Brocker recounted testifying in entrance of a Senate committee that included Courtney in 1999, when she was a lobbyist for the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Affiliation. The Legislature wished to increase exemptions to public data regulation, newspapers wished to cease them, and Brocker thought her presentation was going effectively till Courtney started asking questions. 

At first, Brocker mentioned, his questioning made her sound like she had simply flown in from Los Angeles with the aim of getting paparazzi in every single place and eroding privateness rights. However Courtney ended up making Brocker’s case for her: The invoice’s opponents have been largely small newspapers in Oregon who have been simply making an attempt to do their half to guard democracy. 

“The nice senator, in his inimitable manner – humorous, good, incisive, politically savvy – made my enchantment to the committee higher than I had been making it myself,” she mentioned. 

Senate Minority Chief Tim Knopp, R-Bend, informed Courtney he couldn’t thank him – however solely as a result of Courtney had joked that he would drop useless if he ever heard Knopp say “thanks.” As an alternative, Knopp mentioned, he might say that it was a blessing to work with Courtney and that he hopes his remaining colleagues will emulate his service.

Courtney emphasised bipartisanship throughout his time within the Senate: His presidency started in 2003, when Democrats and Republicans have been evenly cut up. Knopp mentioned Republicans respect him for shielding the minority and making certain their voices are heard. 

Knopp is considered one of just a few Oregon legislators born within the state: His household arrived on the Oregon Path in 1845. Courtney was born in Philadelphia, was raised in West Virginia, Virginia and Rhode Island, graduated from faculty in Rhode Island and received his regulation diploma in Boston, and Knopp mentioned he’s considered one of Oregon’s greatest “adopted sons.” 

“That is your adopted dwelling, and we’re your adopted household,” Knopp mentioned. 

Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Beaverton, mentioned Courtney’s most distinguishing attribute is how a lot he cares for everybody round him. He is aware of the names of his colleagues’ spouses and kids and realized employees’s faculty mascots. 

“Every of us, a method or one other, whether or not Oregon is our native-born dwelling or we’re Oregonians by alternative, we’ll at all times have moments the place we’re strangers in an odd land,” she mentioned. “Peter understands greater than anybody I do know that we should at all times do not forget that truth about ourselves and acknowledge it in others, and we should at all times be welcoming and make their lives rather less unusual.”

Senator Fred Girod, R-Stayton, mentioned Courtney was one of many first individuals to name him when his dwelling burned in a wildfire in 2020. Senate President Professional Tempore James Manning, D-Eugene, mentioned Courtney was there for him when his spouse, Lawanda, died final yr. 

Different departing senators

5 different present senators will go away in January. Democrats Rachel Armitage of Warren and Akasha Lawrence Spence of Portland have been each appointed to complete the phrases of senators who resigned in 2021 and didn’t run for full phrases. 

Republican Invoice Kennemer of Oregon Metropolis narrowly misplaced his re-election marketing campaign to state Rep. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone. Sen. Chuck Thomsen, R-Hood River, opted to retire and endorsed state Rep. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles to interchange him. 

And after 31 years within the Legislature, Democrat Lee Beyer of Springfield selected to retire this yr. Outgoing Gov. Kate Brown appointed him to the Oregon Transportation Fee.

“Lee Beyer might be some of the extraordinary human beings I’ve ever met,” Courtney mentioned. “He’s one thing else, and as a public servant you may’t discover any higher.”

Beyer mentioned his neighbors selecting him to signify them within the Legislature was the largest honor he ever might have acquired.

“It’s so fulfilling if you get a constituent name and you may make their life higher,” he mentioned. 

Beyer urged his colleagues to do not forget that they signify not solely their 140,000 constituents however the practically 4.3 million individuals within the state. City and rural Oregonians don’t appear to grasp one another now, he mentioned, however that may change. 

Neither Kennemer nor Thomsen attended Friday’s session. 

Armitage started crying as she thanked her household and constituents. She mentioned she remembered being within the Home as a younger staffer and listening to a speech about how U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield had mentioned he would at all times return to Oregon, and he or she felt the identical manner.

“My senate time period is over,” Armitage mentioned. “I’ll look on this time with nothing however gratitude, and I’ll proudly stand with those that will at all times name Oregon dwelling.”

Lawrence Spence, who was beforehand appointed to complete a time period within the Oregon Home, mentioned a girl she spoke to early in her Home time period initially couldn’t consider that she was a legislator as a result of she’s a younger Black lady. She mentioned she sought to signify not simply her Portland constituents however hope and chance for individuals who hadn’t traditionally seen themselves mirrored within the Legislature or the payments it handed.  

“You all are tasked with an incredible duty to signify not simply the individuals who appear to be you and the individuals you understand however the individuals you’ll by no means meet,” she mentioned.