Idaho Sen. Jim Risch said the early euphoria has passed and he's anxious to claim his office space in Washington, D.C.

Risch, like other freshmen senators, has been in temporary quarters for two months, with a windowless private office. His staff has little privacy; all are housed in cubicles. It also is difficult to host Idaho visitors, Risch told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday.

Risch said he hopes to get his office assignment in the next 24 hours. "At first, the freshmen were all saying, 'I'm just glad to be here.' We're beyond that now. We're ready to get settled."

Following every election, office space is opened for reshuffling, with choices coming in order of seniority. Risch said he's awaiting word from four other freshmen ahead of him, three who served in the U.S. House and one, Mark Warner of Virginia, who was governor of a larger state.

Risch has his eye on an office in the oldest of three Senate office buildings, the Russell, named for Georgia Democrat Richard Russell, a mentor to Lyndon Johnson and leader of the Senate’s conservative coalition from 1937 to 1963. Russell served 38 years and died in office in 1971.

“I’d like a spot in the Russell Building,” Risch said. “It’s a hundred years old this year, and a grand, old building with a lot of history.”

The Russell is a Beaux-Arts design, with 34 Doric columns facing the Capitol. It is almost a mirror image of the Cannon House Office Building. The building’s most famous space is the Caucus Room, the site of historic hearings including the investigation of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the Teapot Dome scandal in 1923, the Army-McCarthy inquiry in 1954 and Watergate in 1973.