Oregon government will be filled with new faces

By Terry Murry on Wednesday, August 24th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

SALEM – There will be a new look at the Oregon state capitol when the legislature convenes its 2023 session. InterMountain Education Service District Mark Mulvihill has spent years developing relationships with lawmakers, and he said Salem will be a blank slate.

“The governor will change,” he said. Peter Courtney is a legend nationally and he won’t be the Senate chair. We’ll have a new House speaker and about a third of the legislature will be new. That’s a lot of change.”

Mulvihill said that over the years he has built friendships with a diverse number of individuals, and he’s ready to begin again.

“It’s a primary goal for me this year to be more involved than I have been in Salem,” he said. “It’s not going to be as easy to get on the phone and talk.”

He said that he is grateful that the lawmakers from the IMESD region remain unchanged.

“Greg Smith, Bill Hansell, and Bobby Levy are wonderful,” he said. “They do a super job for us and are very strong supporters of public schools.”