Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

Good morning, Northwest.

Dozens of seats in the Oregon Legislature are up for grabs in the midterm election.

A handful of contests could determine whether Democrats hold onto supermajorities in the state House and Senate. OPB politics reporter Dirk VanderHart starts today’s newsletter by breaking down legislative races to watch.

Also this morning, “Oregon Field Guide” joins a marine biologist on the search for wacky, wiggly nudibranchs in Oregon tidepools.

Here’s your First Look at Thursday’s news.

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

6 races could set the balance of power in Salem next year

Oregon voters will cast their votes in 75 legislative contests on Nov. 3. To understand the balance of power in Salem, you probably only have to track about half a dozen of them.

Control of Congress may be in play this election season, but the Beaver State’s electoral map is not given to such swings.

For legislative Democrats, the biggest risk on Nov. 3 is losing the three-fifths supermajorities they currently enjoy in the Capitol. Those margins allow them to pass new taxes without a single Republican vote.

But already-dominant Democrats also may have a chance to run up the score. A national political mood repudiating President Donald Trump could give them momentum to flip Republican-held districts and pad their numbers in the House and Senate. (Dirk VanderHart)

Learn More

3 things to know

• From rallies on bikes and at the Capitol, school sit-outs and letter-writing campaigns, students, families and teachers in Portland and Salem have made their opposition to school closures known over the last few weeks. (Elizabeth Miller and Natalie Pate)
• As climate change worsens, Oregon is enduring double the number of extreme heat days and triple the number of smoky days it did two decades ago, according to a study released this month by the Oregon Health Authority. (Monica Samayoa)
• Federal law enforcement has been cracking down on traffickers of drugs and firearms, leading to more than a dozen indictments of people in the Portland metropolitan area this month. (Troy Brynelson)

Northwest headlines

• Company known for building data centers eyes battery farm site in Eastern Oregon (Monica Carrillo-Casas)
• Opponents of Eugene Clean Energy Fund see uptick in fundraising, but supporters remain far ahead (Nathan Wilk, KLCC)
• Fiber, broadband projects by Oregon highways on hold after Kotek data center order (Shaanth Nanguneri, OCC)
• Velde helps Timbers stay in playoff hunt with 3-2 victory over St. Louis City (AP)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• BikePortland founder steps down after two decades of reporting on cycling culture, policy
• The Portland Opera and the Immigrant Story blend live storytelling and music for ‘The American Story’
• The growing popularity of girls’ flag football in Oregon and beyond

One more look

This Oregon marine biologist knows nudis — tiny, carnivorous sea slugs — and you can too

In the gray milky light of dawn on the Oregon Coast, marine biologist Nancy Treneman scrambled down a brushy trail to the beach on a search for one of the ocean’s most colorful and weird-looking creatures.

Commonly known residents of Oregon’s intertidal zone like sea stars, anemones, mussels and barnacles are easier to locate. Trenemen was searching for tiny, carnivorous creatures much harder to spot: nudibranchs.

These sea slugs come in a kaleidoscope of colors and unexpected shapes that seem straight out of sci-fi. There are roughly 3,000 species worldwide, and Treneman has observed 69 species here in Oregon.

For more than 30 years, the low tide has pulled her back to the tidepools of Cape Arago with the hope of finding more. (Ian McCluskey)

Learn More

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/29/oregon-legislature-election-first-look/