Speaker Cliff Rosenberger Leading the 131st General Assembly

Guest Column from State Representative Jim Buchy

At the start of the new year, many changes took place here at the House. Some members of the General Assembly completed their terms as representatives while some new members came in to start their service to the people of Ohio.

The new year and a new General Assembly also welcomed in a new Speaker of the Ohio House. Representative Cliff Rosenberger of Clarksville, Ohio will serve as the 102nd Speaker of the Ohio House.

Speaker Rosenberger will be one of the youngest speakers ever to lead the Ohio House of Representatives. In the past, most of the Speakers of the Ohio House had served in the legislature for more than twenty years. That isn’t the case anymore because of term limits, which prevent members from serving longer than eight years. Speaker Rosenberger brings new ideas to the table. His ideas will lead the state of Ohio into the future.

Speaker Rosenberger has always been recognized as a man of many talents that have helped him represent the people of Ohio. One of those talents is his ability to build coalitions. He has the remarkable gift of organizing other members to rally around a policy idea, a gift that he will undoubtedly use as leader of the Ohio House.

As a resident of Clarksville, a very rural area, Speaker Rosenberger knows the concerns of people in his district. Many of those concerns are the same ones that people in western Ohio share. As a veteran of the Air National Guard, ensuring that veterans are taken care of is a top priority of his. The same issues that matter to us, matter to him.

Being a senior member of the state Legislature myself, I know what it takes to lead other members and represent the people of Ohio. The character that Speaker Rosenberger carries himself with and the way he is willing to take all the opinions of his colleagues into account assures me that recruiting him to be the next Speaker of the House was a good decision.

Ohio is beginning to turn around. For the past four years, we have been fortunate enough to have Governor Kasich as the leader of our state, as well as many other caring and capable officials. Speaker Rosenberger has made his intention to work with Governor Kasich closely very clear. Together I expect a better, more prosperous Ohio.

Please give me your opinion on this topic and others in the news this month by completing an online survey at tinyurl.com/buchyjanuary2015.