Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem), the Legislature's longest-serving and perhaps most powerful member, is facing a challenge the likes of which he hasn't seen in his 35-year career as a lawmaker.

Matt Geiger, who had been running for a Woodburn House seat in Courtney's district, is planning a recall campaign against Courtney.

Geiger says he's angry that Courtney allowed a historic minimum-wage hike to move through the February session, while blocking, at least so far, a measure that would allocate Oregon Lottery proceeds to veterans' programs.

The bar for a legislative recall is relatively low: From the date he files recall papers, Geiger must gather about 4,760 valid signatures in a district that has nearly 13,000 registered Republicans. "I'm focused on working as hard as I can for the people of Woodburn, Gervais and Salem who re-elected me to this position 16 months ago," Courtney said in a statement.