Oregon state Reps. Vikki Breese-Iverson and Emerson Levy are two political warriors who don’t see politics as warfare with no place for compromise.

Breese-Iverson is a Prineville Republican and the leader of her party in the House, the House minority leader. Levy is a Bend Democrat, a legislator who just finished her first legislative session.

They both represent parts of Redmond. They have different politics. But the tone is not tantrum. The tactic is not dysfunction.

Breese-Iverson and Levy were together Thursday evening in the Redmond Grange to talk about the session and listen to voters. That’s your first clue that with them something different was afoot. The conversation eventually wended its way to walkouts.

One man pointedly asked why House Republicans and specifically “the House minority leader,” Breese-Iverson, did not walk out to block a bill, House Bill 2005. The bill in its final form effectively bans untraceable homemade guns, so called ghost guns. It did contain more restrictions in earlier versions, including limiting access to firearms to people who are under 21. The audience member questioned why House Republicans did not walkout to stop the bill in the same way Senate Republicans had stood up to block bills they did not believe in.

“In that House bill, nobody got what they wanted,” Levy responded. “On my side I am getting yelled at that we didn’t ban assault rifles.”

Walkouts don’t serve the public, Levy said. It means the public’s business doesn’t get done. And what does get done gets shifted to conversations — not in public — but behind closed doors. Walkouts can put funding for essential government services, such as schools, in peril. Levy was on the phone during the session calling Redmond, Bend and Sisters schools worried they might not have enough money to begin a new school year if the Legislature delayed passing a budget.

“Your representative fought like heck where we all got to a place (on House Bill 2005) where we all lost something,” Levy said. “I think that is important. I don’t think we want chaos. We want democracy.”

“It isn’t that we are saying that we just want to be friends,” Breese-Iverson added. “The way that the Legislature and our founding fathers put our state together, we are supposed to have bills and a state budget that keeps our state moving forward. And if every time we get together we walk out … because there is something in front of us that we don’t like, then you stop everything, everything that the state does.”

The Legislature is going to be a place of conflicting camps, beliefs, priorities. Moderation — and looking for compromise — is not milquetoast. It is the mark of the political warriors Oregon needs.