And on the 206th day, the pace picks up.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Slumped in a side-aisle chair, state Rep. Bob Ackerman gazed out at a half-empty chamber before massaging the bridge of his nose.

"I'm just waiting for sine die," he said using the Latin phrase that translates to "without day" and serves as statehouse jargon for adjourning the legislative session.

Adjournment fever has hit the Capitol, where legislators hope to adjourn the 2005 session for good today.

But as Ackerman's late-afternoon repose demonstrated, the condition can bring about periods of momentary lethargy as well as bursts of hyperactivity.

When they weren't sitting through speeches or relaxing in their members-only lounges, lawmakers were busy Wednesday working on some of the session's final deals, with the goal of finishing their business today.

They gave final approval to a $100 million bonding package for transportation and moved closer to the governor's desk bills that phase out the Lottery's Sports Action wagering, provide millions of dollars for university construction and overhaul the campaign finance system.

When they come back today, legislators will try to complete their work, most notably on the biggest and most politically sensitive budget of the session: the $5.24 billion appropriation for public schools.

The session staggers into its 207th day today, tying the mark for the second-longest in state history, set by the 1993 assembly. House and Senate leaders made clear that they don't want the 2005 Legislature to own that record outright.

"Were going to come in here and work until we get it wrapped up," House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, warned her chamber.

Her counterpart, Senate President Peter Courtney, a Salem Democrat, is the Legislature's longest-serving member. Knowing the agony that goes along with trying to get the last deals struck, bills printed and votes counted, he put it this way when telling fellow senators what was in store when they returned to the Capitol today:

"Prepare for a death march," Courtney said.

For rank-and-file members such as Ackerman, D-Eugene, part of the pain of adjournment comes from the start-and-stop pace.

Although he'd found himself with little to do but idle on the side aisle late Wednesday afternoon, an hour or so earlier, he'd been frantically speed-reading through a drivers' license bill while trying to block out the amplified noise of colleagues' speech-giving.

Normally, the veteran attorney would have at least a day or two to read through bills before voting on them. But with adjournment looming, House members had only 15 minutes to read this one before it was to be debated and voted on.

Ackerman soon discovered what he considered a mistake in the bill: It failed to require competitive bids for a contract to a software vendor that would sell the state a new computer program to aid in the recording of drivers' license applicants' facial dimensions. But with time running short, it was too late to fix, so the House passed the bill.

"We don't do our best work under these conditions," he later bemoaned.

Adjournment fever wasn't a malady that struck only legislators. From frantic lobbyists to overworked legislative staffers, it put nearly everyone in the Capitol in a state of controlled chaos.

"I've been chasing rumors and legislators - and other lobbyists to check on the rumors," said education lobbyist Chip Terhune, describing how he'd spent Wednesday.

Several of the Legislature's biggest decisions Wednesday came in committee rooms, clearing the way for subsequent floor votes.

Negotiators from both chambers worked out a deal to revive and revamp a campaign finance bill. It will require all candidates and political action committees to report their financial activities on a weekly basis during the final six weeks before Election Day.

It also establishes a new Internet-based reporting system so those contributions and expenditures can be viewed online in a searchable database format, starting in 2007.

Sarah Wetherson of the Money in Politics Research Action Project, a campaign finance watchdog group, called it a big win, "not just for wonks like me, but for the general public," since ordinary citizens with access to the Web can find out which candidates are getting money from various interest groups during the run-up to an election.

A joint budget-writing panel worked out the final details of a once-stalled bill that will get rid of the Lottery's Sports Action game, which lets players wager on professional football games. That game will end in 2007.

Proponents pushed for dropping the game, in hopes that the National Collegiate Athletic Association would respond to the move away from state-sanctioned sports betting by allowing Portland or Eugene to host national post-season tournament basketball games.

Revenues from Sports Action go to non-revenue-generating Oregon University System athletics, including women's sports.

That would be replaced by the lottery's general proceeds instead of any particular lottery game.

The same budget panel also approved a capital construction budget for higher education that will include $26.7 million for three University of Oregon projects: its education building, Gilbert Hall and its theater project.