SALEM — Oregon Senate Republicans’ new leader, Sen. Fred Girod of Stayton, was assigned to several key committees Monday, Senate President Peter Courtney’s office announced.

Girod was elected by his caucus April 24 to replace Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass, who is not running for reelectionin his district this year.

Baertschiger led Senate Republicans during three walkouts that shut down the chamber in 2019 and 2020, to temporarily block a business tax to fund education and kill two versions of a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill. Girod also participated in the walkouts; the only Senate Republican who did not participate in 2020 was Sen. Tim Knopp, of Bend.

By the end of Senate Republicans’ walkout in March, the third in a year, Baertschiger sounded deeply ambivalent. In a press conference, he said of using walkouts as a negotiating tactic that “it scares me to death” and predicted that lobbyists will increasingly push lawmakers to flee the Capitol to kill bills. “This is not a good way to run a state, I can tell you that right now,” Baertschiger said.

Girod will take over from Baertschiger on the Senate Rules, Legislative Administration and Legislative Counsel committees, as well as the Legislative Emergency Board, which makes spending decisions between legislative sessions. Baertschiger will replace Girod on the General Government and Emergency Preparedness Committee.