Last year was a bruiser in state politics. The disputed race for governor, the epic battle over the gas tax, the tense skirmishes over gay rights—all these fights seem to have left members of both parties a bit battered, and as lawmakers head into the new legislative session that begins in Olympia on January 9, they're sounding eager for a reprieve, rather than a replay.

Democrats, who control both houses and the governor's office, and last session presided over passage of the biggest tax increase in state history with the gas tax, don't think fighting for more big tax proposals this session is a winning strategy—particularly when the entire house and a large part of the senate are up for reelection this fall. Their tricky task will be to deliver on education, health care, and environmental issues—the issues Dems like to run on—without proposing too many new taxes that would give Republicans ammunition to use against them in November.

"It's going to be a lot of dancing and a lot of posturing," Republican Richard DeBolt of Chehalis, the state house minority leader, predicts of this session. "That's about it."

For their part, Republicans need to figure out a dance or posture that will bring them back to power in Olympia, and it seems they've settled on a strategy reminiscent of Newt Gingrich's 1994 "Contract with America," which gave national Republicans control of Congress. State Republican leaders plan to unveil their "Commitment to Washington" this week, says DeBolt.

It sounds like a long shot, considering that the Republicans' 11-point promise, as previewed by DeBolt recently, sounds a lot like the Democrats' own legislative agenda: fixing problems with the WASL, the standardized test all students in this state must now pass; figuring out how to spend the $1.4 billion "windfall" the state is expected to get because of improving economic conditions; and chipping away at the perennial issue of health-care availability and costs. The twist: Republicans will promise to be tougher than the Democrats on sex offenders, identity theft, and methamphetamine use. Their hope seems to be to ride back into power on the standard Republican trifecta: sex, drugs, and crime.

There's one thing that could make this session considerably less ho-hum. For the past 10 months the Washington State Supreme Court has been considering the state's landmark gay-marriage lawsuit, and if a ruling comes before or during the session, the vibe in Olympia is likely to turn on a dime, becoming more like an apocalyptic culture war and less like a soft launch for the fall campaign season. For much of 2005, political insiders predicted a ruling would come well before this session began, and since it hasn't, the conventional wisdom now sees a ruling in the next few months as unlikely. With this being a short legislative session (the legislature alternates annually between long and short sessions, and this one will be a quick 60 days), the expectation is that the state supreme court will not upend lawmakers' plans to get in, get out, and get started on their reelection campaigns. (And the justices themselves could have an incentive to delay: several are also up for reelection in November.)

But if the political sparks in Olympia might not be as big this year as last, there are a couple of controversial issues that will draw a lot of interest from King County voters when they're considered by the legislature:

• Six Seattle-area senators have introduced legislation that would allow county canvassing boards to issue civil fines against people who abuse the voter-challenge process. The legislation is a response to the Republican Party's Lori D. Sotelo, who just before the November 2005 elections challenged the registrations of almost 2,000 voters in liberal King County. Hundreds of Sotelo's challenges turned out to be erroneous, and Democrats alleged attempted voter suppression. The fight over this bill will be another round in the battle between the parties over election integrity, and if the Democrats prevail, it could put a crimp in Republicans' 2006 election strategy.

• After 30 years of defeats, including a one-vote defeat in the state senate last year that drew national attention, Representative Ed Murray's bill to prevent employment and housing discrimination against homosexuals will be reintroduced this session. All eyes will be on Microsoft, which flip-flopped on its support for the bill last year, and on Senator Bill Finkbeiner, R-Redmond, who voted against the bill last year but has been suggesting that he might be more supportive of gay rights now that he's no longer the leader of the Republican caucus in the senate.

eli@thestranger.com