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The state Senate has scheduled an orientation session for new members this week. But it hardly seems necessary for most of the rookies to lose out on three days of Christmas shopping, since few are new to the Capitol.

While 18 of the 39-member upper chamber are first-time senators, only four are new legislators. They are Republicans Jack Donahue of Covington, Gerald Long of Natchitoches and Neil Riser of Winnsboro and Democrat David Heitmeier of Algiers. The other 14 have served in the House, some for a long time, such as Democrats John Alario of Westwego and Francis Thompson of Delhi, both veterans of more than 30 years.

So while there are a few different procedures and customs in the Senate, the new members haven’t much to learn.

The faux-rookie Senate contingent contrasts wildly with the House, where 59 of 105 members will be taking their first legislative oaths on Jan. 14. That brand-new members make up 56% of the House and only 10% of the Senate overshadows the partisan breakdown of 51% Democrats in the House and 62% in the Senate.

It also explains why the bipartisan power-sharing demanded by the new governor and promised by the incoming leaders of both houses is more than a good-government ideal but also a necessity, especially for the inexperienced lower chamber.

Even when Democrats held hefty majorities in both houses, conventional partisanship was downplayed, with the two real parties being the ins and the outs, determined by seniority and one’s relationship to the governor.

That paradigm has shifted only slightly with the great leveler of term limits. For newcomers, it’s more than learning Robert’s Rules of Order or directions to Ruth’s Chris, but rather how to count and trade votes. As Speaker-to-be Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, recalls of his first session with fellow freshmen, “We couldn’t see a train coming across the floor.”

Besides that the nearly equal ranks of Democrats and Republicans mandate cooperation in the House, its relevance is at stake, too. It’s all hands on deck for that body, for without seasoned chairmen crafting and guiding legislation, the House will be consistently out-maneuvered by the wiley Senate, with whom the governor would have to make his deals. The House would be left with its principles but not much else when it comes to putting its stamp on bills and the budget.

Another balancing concern is geography. There is already grumbling among legislators around the state about the concentration of political power in metro New Orleans. Along with Tucker and incoming Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal resides in Kenner and re-elected Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu is from New Orleans.

That’s a major shift from the outgoing set-up of an Acadiana governor, a north Louisiana speaker and a central Louisiana Senate president.

In selecting chairmen and members of the important money committees, Tucker ranks “experience and talent (as) the real criteria, then geography, then loyalty.”

The other factor is race. In the contest for Senate president, much was made of Democrat Chaisson linking up with the lone GOP contender, Sen. Mike Michot of Lafayette, who is expected to be rewarded with the chairmanship of the most important committee, Finance. But who really sealed victory for Chaisson were three African-American female senators: Lydia Jackson of Shreveport, Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge and Ann Duplessis of New Orleans.

When they threw their support behind the moderate Chaisson instead of the more populist Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, the latter knew it was over and folded.

A similar scenario played out in the House when Rep. Karen Carter, D-New Orleans, gave up her speakership bid to cast her lot with Tucker over fellow Democrat Don Cazayoux of New Roads.

Look for all four to chair major committees or, in Broome’s case, become Senate president pro tem, though Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City, also is vying for that post.

By inauguration day, it will be 36 years, since when John Alario was a freshman representative, that the Legislature has seen so much change. But for him and other gray-haired rookies, only their seats will be new.