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Falls Republican aiming to be Ohio governor later in political career
By Dennis J. Willard Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau
Published on Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007
COLUMBUS: This year has been like so many others in state Sen. Kevin Coughlin's political career, only more so.
The Republican from Cuyahoga Falls has introduced legislation at a rate that ranks him among the most prolific in the legislature, he has engaged his political enemies and he has laid plans for his political future.
Coughlin wants a lot.
He wants to run for governor. Someday.
He is working publicly to oust Summit County Republican Party chairman Alex Arshinkoff in a move he believes is needed to rebuild the local party to begin winning elections.
At the same time, Coughlin has not eschewed his duties in the Ohio General Assembly.
He chairs one of the busiest panels in the legislature, the Senate Health, Human Services and Aging Committee, and has introduced 11 bills on his own. As chairman, he often is asked to carry legislation that moves to his panel after being passed out of the Ohio House, which means holding meetings and boning up on the finer points of the proposals.
For Coughlin, it is all one and the same. He sponsors bills that meld with his political beliefs, many of which are controversial, but these stands also separate him from the crowded pool of Next-Gen Republicans, those under 45 with dreams of holding higher office one day.
He said he is taking on Arshinkoff because it is the right thing to do for the local party, but he knows that if he wins, the Summit County party structure will be beholden to him when he decides which race to pursue in 2010.
And like most lawmakers, Coughlin is contemplating life after term limits.
''I have a lot of ideas about what Ohio should be doing, and there's only so much that you can do from the legislature. I would like to lead Ohio as its governor someday. I've been very clear with people about that,'' Coughlin said.
Term limits prevent him from running for the Senate again in 2010, when Republicans must come up with a slate to possibly retake the four statewide offices lost last year: governor, attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state.
Coughlin is talking about being governor someday, but he is taking his age into consideration and ensuring that he has room to maneuver into another race should Gov. Ted Strickland's approval scores continue to hold at around 60 percent.
''I would not run just to be governor, but to implement an agenda to change our state. Whether 2010 is the time for that, I don't know, probably not. I'll be 40 years old when I leave the Senate, and I've got four or five statewide elections ahead of me,'' Coughlin said.
He said he is not afraid to take on a popular governor.
''I think Ted Strickland is a good and decent guy. I don't question his motives. We have political differences, of course. We have a different vision. I happen to think that the Republican vision is more in line with what most Ohioans prefer,'' Coughlin said.
Coughlin raised $44,000 in the first six months of 2007, with his largest contributors being David Brennan, the charter school entrepreneur, and Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of the Limited and affiliated retail operations.
He opened an office to run for re-election last year and continues to lease the space.
''I'm not at the end of my political career, but it also gives me a place to meet with constituents,'' Coughlin said.
Before he can run statewide in three years, Coughlin has a local battle to wage that could short-circuit his long-term plans.
In August, Coughlin sent out a three-page letter criticizing Arshinkoff and the local party for raising piles of money and losing loads of elections.
Coughlin is calling for a change in leadership.
One of Arshinkoff's backers, Don Robart, the mayor of the senator's hometown, called Coughlin ''nuttier than a fruitcake.''
Coughlin acknowledges the coming fight is going to consume a great deal of his time before a winner emerges in March, but he said this is not detracting from his efforts to pass the numerous bills bearing his name in the legislature.
A number of bills are related to the committee he chairs, including legislation to create a pilot project in Northeast Ohio to address the rise of medical malpractice lawsuits by requiring parties to enter into arbitration before a lawsuit can be filed.
''It will reduce the number of cases that will come to trial,'' Coughlin said.
He and state Rep. Michelle Schneider, R-Madeira, are sponsoring identical bills to stop pharmacists from substituting generic epilepsy drugs for a specific drug prescribed by a physician.
''Epileptic drugs are kind of like behavioral drugs in that a very slight change can seriously alter the outcome of the prescription,'' Coughlin said. ''If a doctor writes a specific brand, he did that for a reason and that should be followed. You don't want people to have more seizures.''
Coughlin also introduces his fair share of bills that spark strong feelings on both sides.
He wants to identify sex offenders through mandatory orange license plates.
''I think it's an important bill,'' Coughlin said. ''I know that some people think there will be vigilante justice. We've been telling people exactly where offenders live for more than a decade now and we've been putting yellow license plates on repeat DUI offenders for about four years now. We have not seen vigilantes in this state. People don't want to take the law into their own hands. The bill is designed to inform people.''
He also wants legislation that would give parents the legal right to bury a miscarried fetus and requires hospitals to notify the family that it has the legal right to take possession.
And he has weighed in on the eminent domain debate by sponsoring a resolution to go directly to voters to amend the Ohio Constitution in 2008.
Although Coughlin supported legislation that restricts a governmental body's authority to take possession of private property through eminent domain proceedings, he said the law can be overturned by the courts or rewritten by future legislatures.
''On the question of property rights, you need to have something concrete for Ohioans to know exactly what their rights are. What is a legitimate taking? What is not a legitimate taking and what are the rights of local governments? You can't leave that to the whims of the court or the legislature,'' Coughlin said.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: This year has been like so many others in state Sen. Kevin Coughlin's political career, only more so.
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