The 76th Oregon Legislative Assembly convened beginning on January 11, 2011, for the first of its two regular sessions. All 60 seats of the House of Representatives and 16 of the 30 state senate seats were up for election in 2010. The general election for those seats took place on November 2. The Democrats retained the majority in the senate, but lost six seats in the house, leading to an even split (30-30) between Democrats and Republicans. The governor of Oregon during the session was John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, who was elected to a third term in 2010 following an eight-year absence from public office.