OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Call it the Seinfeld session: 60 days about nothing.

With a few of the usual exceptions, such as budget battles and dealing with genuine emergencies like the December floods, lawmakers spent the winter fine-tuning the ambitious and expensive 2007 session - and getting ready for the fall campaigns.

Above all, it seemed the majority Democrats and Gov. Chris Gregoire were practicing the Olympia version of the docs' Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.

House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt borrowed a bit of Shakespeare to gripe that it was "much ado about nothing."

The session was largely devoid of drama or strokes of boldness as Democrats sought to restrain spending and hold down the campaign firepower of interest groups like the gun lobby, unions, and the homebuilders.

Some Democrats, including Sen. Brian Weinstein of Mercer Island and Rep. Pat Lantz of Gig Harbor, bitterly complained about a lack of backbone - on issues ranging from mining on Maury Island and cracking down on homebuilders to a demand for impeachment of the president and limit on gun use by the mentally ill.

Indeed, Democrats broke little new ground, restraining expansion of their trademark programs like health care, and mostly protecting the dwindling budget reserves and postponing many of the big, expensive issues until after the election. They were as reserved this session as they were bold last year after storming to supermajority status in both houses.

Democratic leaders and the governor defended the session's emphasis on moderation, incrementalism - and picking no unnecessary fights.

Republicans, seldom consulted, were often reduced to scolds, warning that Democrats were continuing to overspend.

A look at some of the players and issues of the session:

-GOVERNOR GREGOIRE. With a potentially tough re-election battle just around the corner, the freshman Democrat set the framework for her colleagues. She got nearly everything she requested, including modest budget increases and an unusually large reserve.

Gregoire now spends the next three weeks dealing with the deluge of 329 bills and then officially launches her re-election campaign. She touts progress on "kitchen table" issues like schools, transportation, health care and public safety on her watch.

-DINO ROSSI. Republican Rossi, who lost to Gregoire by 133 votes on the second recount in 2004, wasn't physically present in Olympia much during the session, but his shadow loomed over lawmakers as they grappled with the budget, spending reserves, crime and other issues he's already hammering on.

Rossi says Gregoire and her Democratic posse have played into his hands by producing a bloated budget while staring at a projected deficit of $2.4 billion next year. "This is called denial," he says.

Several polls show a nip-and-tuck race.

-DEMOCRATS. House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, presided over some of the largest Democratic majorities in history, but seemed content to run a restrained session.

Democrats will try to have it both ways on the campaign trail, emphasizing their 2008 spending restraint and the big surplus they've left behind, as well as their bold and expensive 2007 agenda. The latter included phase in of daylong kindergarten, cleanup of Puget Sound, and health care for all kids.

Barring a collapse of the economy or a reversal of the Democratic tide that started running in 2006, they expect to keep their big majorities and re-elect the governor. Chopp even hopes to pick up some more seats, leading Kessler to joke that the speaker will rest only when he has all 98 seats.

-REPUBLICANS. Minority Republicans, largely irrelevant in the current Democratic regime, spent their session making voice-in-the-wilderness warnings about overspending, deficits, and the Democrats' penchant for "empty promises" and postponing tough tax decisions until after the election. They expect to make election gains and think they have a winning sales pitch.

-TIM EYMAN. The one-man initiative factory seemed omnipresent. Eyman successfully defended the initiative process, turned back efforts to divert money for the performance audits he won via initiative two years ago, and bird-dogged the newly approved Initiative 960.

The latter required lawmakers to vote on all fee increases, something that seemed to catch the Legislature off-guard, and made it tougher for lawmakers to consider tax hikes. Brown is going to court to try to overturn a supermajority requirement to pass taxes in Olympia. Stay tuned.

-BIG IDEAS. Democrats' two big new ideas come without the money to make them actually work. Lawmakers failed to figure out a financing plan for a new paid family leave program that is supposed to start next year, and a sales tax rebate program for the poor will take effect only if lawmakers come up with over $100 million in the deficit-plagued 2009 session.

-SONICS. Last-ditch efforts by potential local owners of a pro-basketball team fizzled. The SuperSonics appear headed for Oklahoma and efforts by local tycoons to rehab KeyArena for a new team met resistance in Olympia. Maybe next year, leaders said.

Favorite lobbying moment: A small airplane buzzed the Capitol, with a banner trailing that said "Save our Sonics. Next year is too late!"

-GAY RIGHTS. Gliding in under the radar, a measure expanding legal rights of registered domestic partners passed the Legislature with barely a ripple. Sponsors openly described it as incremental progress toward marriage equality.

-FLOOD RELIEF. Nothing unites the partisan Legislature quicker than a big natural disaster that has been seared into the public psyche. Lawmakers passed $50 million for flood projects in Lewis County and planning for a broader response in the Chehalis Basin. Also approved were $11.6 million to match federal aid, $10 million for housing assistance and $12 million for road repairs.

-OTHER WINNERS. Education, including WASL changes and better teacher pay; global warming and the environment; housing and bills dealing with the home mortgage mess; new ferries; progress on a new Lake Washington floating bridge, including use of tolls; and public safety bills.

-OTHER LOSERS. Open government, a new college for North Puget Sound, broad property tax relief, refurbishing Husky stadium, a homeowners' bill of rights and DUI checkpoints.

-SPENDING & SAVING. Lawmakers added $306 million to the state's two-year budget of $33.4 billion. The focus of the debate was how much to leave in reserve to deal with projected deficits. After absorbing about $500 million in new revenue and caseload updates, and after nudging by the governor and goading by Republicans, Democrats agreed to leave $835 million in savings. That is most of the $954 million surplus they were working with.

"We were disciplined, we were prudent, we were frugal," insisted Senate budget Chairwoman Margarita Prentice. One Democrat called it "a crap shoot," but said it's a reasonable gamble that the economy will hold steady.

Republicans called it the latest example of overspending and warned that taxes are surely on the horizon, conveniently after the elections.

And so the legislative session morphs into campaign season.