Student trustees on university boards of trustees might be granted voting rights, the state is teetering on not adopting some controversial parts of President Barack Obama’s health care law, and Ohio Democrats are soon expected to introduce gun control bills. All that’s happening in the Ohio Statehouse right now — and it’s only halfway through the General Assembly.
Students who vote in Athens have two people in Columbus who represent them: Rep. Lou Gentile, D-Steubenville, and Sen. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens.
Phillips, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, is serving her second term as a state representative. She won re-election by a relatively wide margin in 2012 and will face re-election again in 2014. Because of term limits, she can serve only two more terms in the House.
She hasn’t sponsored any bills this General Assembly, as of press time, but she is the co-sponsor of 15, including one that would make the last day of February “Rare Disease Day.” She opposes many of Gov. John Kasich’s policies, including his proposed state tax cuts and education funding formula.
Gentile, serving his first elected term in the Senate after being appointed to replace an outgoing senator in 2011, is up for re-election in 2016 and can run for another four-year term before being ousted by term limits.
Of the two bills he’s sponsored this year, one would require a state university’s board of trustees to adopt a policy for awarding academic credit to student veterans for training or service completed.
Outside of Ohio, U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio-15, represents some parts of Central and Southeastern Ohio in Washington, D.C. Senators Rob Portman, a Republican, and Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, represent the state as a whole.
jj360410@ohiou.edu
