The biggest threat to certainty is uncertainty. Yes, you can quote me on that.

After a rough-and-tumble start and mechanical breakdowns once on the road, the Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Session motorcade has screeched to a halt due to a road closure and forced into a long and uncertain detour.

The six-day-long session was expected to conclude Wednesday with a vote in the Senate on a transportation funding plan. However, the sudden illness of a key senator has derailed all hope of a speedy conclusion to a session already mired in mishaps.

Sen. Chris Gorsek (D-Troutdale) has reportedly suffered complications from back surgery and is unavailable to cast what would be the deciding vote for at least two weeks.

Failure of the Senate to conclude, or Sine Die, opens up the potential (even if unlikely) of an action thriller worthy of prize-winning author David Baldacci.

Current members aren’t likely aware of all the ramifications — except at least one, Christine Drazan. She was Chief of Staff to House Speaker Mark Simmons in the fourth Emergency Session of 2002 when the effects of the 2001 Recession saw revenue forecast tumble monthly. We passed a reworked budget package in the Senate and then Sine Die. But the House did not reciprocate within three days and the Senate had to reconvene. Senate President Gene Derfler’s face was as red as an overripe tomato with anger.

Under the Oregon Constitution, neither chamber can continue beyond three days after the other has passed its Sine Die Resolution without the other chamber having to return to the Capitol and gavel back in. That means the House must be resurrected and gavel in — if only by one member — by Friday and reconvene. Once that gavel strikes the maple, the Sine Die resolution is essentially dissolved and the House is once again alive.

The impact of this opens the door to all kinds of possibilities. The House could establish a quorum and open committees on all kinds of issues. Technically, they could pass bills over to the Senate.

On the flip side, any one of the 12 Republican senators could become a Kingmaker. I have no doubt that if there were a Mae Yih or Betsy Johnson in the Republican Senate caucus, they would don the green shade visor, slide up to the poker table and say, “Let’s deal!” The market value for one vote has suddenly gone up.

Realistically there are few Republicans who might be able to pull that off as many have already publicly declared “I’m no way-no how” and they have cornered themselves out of such a negotiation. But some others? Anything is potentially possible now that the session gates have been blown wide open.

The Senate could, upon agreement of the President, open a special Senate committee, refer the House-passed bill to that committee, make the agreed-upon amendment, pass it, and send back to the House for concurrence. None of this was possible before the news of Gorsek’s illness. Or, Democrats can cross their fingers that there will be no more missteps in the next two weeks and wait it out. The track record of the past five days is not encouraging.

The House tried five times to gavel in to start the session last Friday and didn’t have enough members to even get to the Pledge of Allegiance until the sun had already set. Republicans promised to supply four members to go along with the Democrats’ 36 to achieve quorum. But a handful of Democrats didn’t show up. If not for Republicans asking a few more members to show up that evening to put the session day out of its misery, who knows when the session would have started.

Senate Democrats did not have a full complement of their 18 members needed to pass the transportation plan on Friday either, and still don’t. At least the good news for all the members is they will have their per diem extended for at least the next two weeks helping the states’ personal wage index a little bit.

But wait, there’s more. The Legislature can’t turn to the Emergency Board for temporary funding for ODOT workers because the Emergency Board cannot meet when the Legislature is in session. They could reopen the Joint Committee on Ways & Means, but the money is in the Emergency Board and they can’t convene to give it back.

The one winner in all of this are political donors. They are given a much-needed reprieve from cries for cash. Legislators can’t receive contributions during session due to Capitol Club rules and since that has been extended to at least the third week of September, all wallets are safe. But it gets even better. Legislators can’t receive donations during the week of interim legislative committees either and that is scheduled the week after. It’s a cash-free September just as filing for the next election is set to open up next Tuesday. Emergency Sessions-the perfect campaign finance reform.

As we noted in our pre-session story last week, calling an Emergency Session without secured agreement and votes was a bold but risky move by the Governor. Can she afford to risk two weeks of uncertainty-perhaps even more-before making a move? To answer that question I suggest going back a few years and ask: What would a Speaker Kotek do?