Jessica Bailey

Professor James Pihakis

Intermediate Comp
2 December 2013
The Ohio State Senate
For as long as I can remember, I have been enthralled by government and politics.
Reading news articles and watching news stories focusing on politics was always interesting for
me. I have known for a while now that I want to study and work in the government. When
presented with the idea of this paper, I got the idea to focus on something regarding this. While
doing national government would certainly have been an amazing opportunity, I knew that it was
most likely not a realistic one. To truly be able to insert myself into a community and see its
inner workings, I knew I would have to focus on one that was closer to home. Instead, I chose to
focus on the state government. I knew that studying the Statehouse in Columbus would be a
realistic task and I was interested in learning more about how my state government works.
Before my research began, I knew there were many questions that I wanted to get
answered. These questions would hopefully help me to understand the community a lot better in
order to write a more thorough paper. One such question was how the discourse community
differed from other communities that are similar (i.e. the House of Representatives, the National
Senate, or the Governor). I believe that this is an important question to ask because it will give
me insight to how unique the senate is and how similar it is to other discourse communities. I
also want to find out how exactly the community uses the texts that they have in order to achieve
the set goals for the community. Another big question is how the community deals with people
who arent members but interact with the community nonetheless. In other terms, I want to find
out how the community communicates with constituents who are not familiar with the
community and its discourse or who perhaps are skeptical about the community.
Government has always been an integral part of any state that has been in existence. In
America, especially, we place a special importance in our government to keep our society in
order. As anyone who has taken any government class knows, there are three branches of
government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The Founding Fathers created these three
branches in order to allow the country to run smoothly. The executive was put in place to
implement laws, the legislative was put in place to make laws, and the judicial was put in place
to enforce laws. It is also important to know that there are different levels of government that
goes from National to State and all the way down to Local. All three levels of government were
formed on the same principles but often differ in the types of things that the government wishes
to accomplish. Elected officials, no matter the level or branch, are put in place to represent their
constituents thoroughly. Throughout my research, I found what I have always known. The Ohio
State Senate is a legislative body that was put in place in order to write laws and represent the
people. Compared to the House of Representatives, the Senate is the higher branch with more
authority and also serves more constituents per senator. The Governor of a state is comparable
to the President and has authority similar to him. And similarly, the Ohio State Senate is parallel
to the United States Senate only at a different level of government. So while the Senate is
unique in its own way, it is also very comparable to other similar discourse communities.
Texts are a very important aspect of how this community works. Observably, the most
important text that this community uses is legislative pieces and bills. Senators write a lot of
legislation and also use and read legislation. Legislation is an important text because it helps the
community to achieve its most important goal: to pass laws. In order for any law to pass, the
legislation describing the law needs to be written. Those senators that write bills often spend
much time making sure that they are ready to put on the floor of the senate to be voted on.
Senators are mostly concerned with writing good bills that have a good chance of being passed.
Bill writing is a very specific form of communication. The process is extremely complicated and
it takes a specialized person such as an attorney or a staff member of Ohios Legislative Service
Commission to construct the bill. The main goals of the LSC are to make sure that the bills do
not conflict with Ohio law and that the proposals are technically accurate. What I have found is
that the process of writing a bill concerns many people, both senators and non-senators.
Concerned citizens may have a say in how a bill is drafted in order to make sure that their voices
are heard. Specifically in the Ohio Senate, a bill has to go through three considerations to even
be signed into law by the Governor. Through this complicated process, it is easy to see that
senators are overly concerned with producing quality bills. Over the course of each General
Assembly, the senate passes hundreds of senate bills. The Constitution is also a very important
text that the senate uses. The Constitution gives the senate its basis for how it should work. It is
essentially a guideline to the community. The Constitution of the State of Ohio was written in
1803, the same year that Ohio achieved statehood. There are various articles in Ohios
Constitution; among those are the preamble, the bill of rights, and the articles establishing each
branch of government among others. Article II of the Constitution is the article that deals
directly with the Legislative Branch of government and gives the Senate and House their
particular powers. Among those powers are the ability to amend the Constitution, the ability to
write laws, and also makes the guidelines for the terms of each chamber of Congress.
Membership in this community is not an easy feat to accomplish. In order to even be
considered eligible to run for the office of senator, the candidate must be a resident of the state of
Ohio and must have lived in the district in which they are running for a year prior to the election.
While the beauty of democracy allows for any citizen to run for public office, there are many
things that help someone get elected. Most candidates that are successful are either lawyers or
have a background in law and/or government. This background helps to give the candidate an
edge when campaigning. Most candidates also have a lot of wealth in order to fund expensive
campaigns. While this is truer in regards to national elections, it still directly applies to state
elections. The candidates who win the plurality of votes among their constituents become
senator. As the road to becoming senator is often a long and tedious process, membership is
limited to only people who are extremely motivated to be a part of this community. More often
than not, the members of the community worked for a long time to get to the place they are in, as
is true with any elected position. The community is made up of only a select number of people
who are elected to the community in order to serve and represent the people who voted for them.
These senators are elected to four year terms and are limited to serving only two terms in their
lives.
As is true in national government, a Senate President and President Pro Tempore are
voted on by members of the Senate to represent the body. As opposed to the national Senate,
where the president is the Vice President of the United States and not really a senator, the
president of Ohios Senate is actually a senator who is voted on upon the other senators to
represent them. Keith Faber, a Republican, is currently the President of Ohios Senate. This
reflects the fact that the majority of the Senate is currently Republicans while the minority is
Democrats. While the president is in charge of leading the senate, the president pro tempore is
essentially second in command. He presides over the senate when the president is not able to do
so. The phrase pro tempore is a Latin term that means for the time being. After the President
and President Pro Tempore in power relations are the Majority and Minority Floor Leaders. The
floor leaders are also voted on by the other members of the Senate to represent their party on the
floor. These leaders make sure that the agenda is reached by his or her party. After the floor
leaders are the Majority and Minority Whips. The whips for each party monitor legislation and
secure votes on legislation by members of their party. The rest of the members of the Senate fall
in after these leaders and make up the rest. Power relations are a crucial part of the senate
because it gives the community structure. The way that the community members communicate
with each other depends heavily on whos in charge. The senators higher up in command take
precedence when speaking over the other members and have more opportunities to talk in front
of the other senators. It is important for senators to know and follow the rules that accompany
the power relations in the community in order for the community to run smoothly.
The members of this community innately share many of the same goals and concerns.
Some of the most valuable intentions the senators share are representing their constituents well,
getting re-elected to the community and also writing/voting on bills that they view as important.
One of the questions I posed earlier was regarding how the senate uses the various texts in order
to achieve the goals of the community. The senate definitely uses the process of bill drafting and
passing in order to rally together support for their causes and gain points from their constituents.
It goes without saying that when senators pass bills that have the support of the constituents,
those people are more likely to vote for and support that candidate in elections. Recently, in the
age of massive partisanship in politics, it has been harder for any body of government to get
legislation passed. The presence of partisanship in politics, including in the Ohio senate, has
begun to cloud the goals of the community. Some might say that the major goal of many
senators is to discredit the other side of the aisle while passing legislation that is pertinent to their
own party. Many people also view one of the senators biggest goals as getting re-elected rather
than making sure they are being effective senators. It is very important for senators in the state
senate to show that they are able to work well and efficiently with those senators across the aisle.
According to a few sources, however, it seems that Ohio senators are working hard to be
bipartisan. An article written by Senator Gayle Manning in 2012 claims that Ohio Senators are
working hard to form connections across the aisle. She says, I am proud to report that members
of the Ohio Senate have succeeded in working beyond such political divides in recent months to
pass a number of bills that are leading to a more prosperous future. In fact, of the 198 bills
passed by the Senate since the start of last year, 159 have been approved with bipartisan support.
That means that 80 percent of the bills passed by our chamber received support from Republican
and Democrat members (Manning). And similarly, an article written in USA Today in 2007
claims that Ohio and Florida senators were working hard to get things done even if it means
consenting to the other side every once in a while. While this by no means shows that
bipartisanship is now the norm in the senate (such a claim would be way too optimistic), it does
show that senators in Ohio are working to keep the needs of the state ahead of their own political
agendas at least to a point.
As a senator, the one event that takes precedence over any other in the community is the
sessions. The senate currently meets three times a week during session. Each session is
established at the beginning of the General Assembly. In simpler terms, every two years at the
beginning of a new senate the president determines when session will be held. Traditionally its
always been three times a week. During session the senate votes on various bills and resolutions.
Most of the time sessions are very formal and business like. The senators will convene, vote on
the bills, and be dismissed. However, when there is a particularly controversial bill up to be
voted on, the true nature of the senate comes out. Oftentimes during the voting period for
important and controversial bills, the statehouse will be crawling with news reporters, supporters,
and dissenters. In recent Ohio history, one bill stands out to me the most as being one of those
controversial bills: Senate Bill 5. Anyone familiar with Ohio legislature knows that in 2011,
SB5 was a huge deal. The bill limited collective bargaining for public workers in Ohio. When
the bill was passed by the Senate and House, a storm of controversy came about with teachers,
firefighters, policemen among other public workers protesting at the statehouse. A referendum
was filed soon after and was overwhelmingly voted no by constituents in Ohio. The large
presence in the state capital both of voters supporting and criticizing the bill made national
attention. Inside the senate, tensions were heightened as members of both political parties fought
to gain enough votes. While SB5 is an extreme example of partisanship and tension in the senate
it goes to prove that politics can be a tough game to play.
The Ohio State Senate is a community that has a long history and will continue to live on
as long as the state of Ohio is in existence. After researching the senate, I have come to the
conclusion that while each branch and level of government is very different, they are all
interconnected in a way that makes it virtually impossible to study one without at least knowing
a little bit of information about the others. While there were many facts that I came across
during my research that I already knew, there were also some facts that I came across that
surprised me and also deepened my passion for the field of study. Studying the government is a
tedious task and is a task that does not interest many people, but I can honestly say that I was
intrigued throughout my entire research.


Works Cited
Cauchon, Denns. At state level, GOP, Dems learn to get along. USA Today n.d.: Academic
Search Complete. Web. 15 Nov 2013.
Manning, Gayle. "Working Beyond The Partisan Divide." The Ohio Senate. N.p., 09 July 2012.
Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Ohio Constitution. Article II.
Ohio. Consumers' Counsel. How Utility Legislation Becomes Law in Ohio. N.p., 2010. Web. 12
Dec. 2013.