Kevin Coughlin
Encyclopedia
Kevin J. Coughlin is a former Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 member of the Ohio Senate
Ohio Senate
The Ohio State Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly, the legislative body for the U.S. state of Ohio. There are 33 State Senators. The state legislature meets in the state capital, Columbus. The President of the Senate presides over the body when in session, and is currently Tom...

, who represented the 27th District from 2001 to 2010. He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives
Ohio House of Representatives
The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate....

 from 1997 until 2000. He is now owner of the consulting firm Lexington Strategic.

Life and career

Coughlin graduated from Woodridge High School
Woodridge High School
Woodridge High School is a public high school in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Woodridge Local School District...

 in Peninsula, Ohio
Peninsula, Ohio
Peninsula is a village in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 602 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 in 1988, received a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 from Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University, often referred to as Bowling Green or BGSU, is a public, coeducational research university located in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The institution was granted a charter in 1910 by the State of Ohio as part of the Lowry Bill, which also established Kent State...

 in 1992, and an Masters of Public Administration from BGSU in 1994. In 1996, he ran for the Ohio House of Representatives
Ohio House of Representatives
The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate....

 after Representative Wayne Jones
Wayne Jones (Ohio)
-References:...

 vacated to run for the Ohio Senate
Ohio Senate
The Ohio State Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly, the legislative body for the U.S. state of Ohio. There are 33 State Senators. The state legislature meets in the state capital, Columbus. The President of the Senate presides over the body when in session, and is currently Tom...

. He won the seat, and was sworn into office on January 3, 1997. He won reelection in 1998 with 63.64%, and again in 2000 with 63.9% of the vote.

Coughlin served two and one half terms in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Ohio Senate

After four terms in the Ohio Senate, Senator Roy Ray
Roy Ray
Roy Lee Ray was a member of the Ohio Senate, serving the 27th district from 1987 to 2001. His district encompassed portions of Akron. In 2001, he resigned and was succeeded by Kevin Coughlin.-External links:***...

 retired early in 2001, leaving Senate Republicans to appoint someone to the vacant 27th District. Coughlin was appointed, and was sworn into office on February 2, 2001. He won his own four-year term in 2002 with 52.98% of the electorate against Democrat Tom Bevan. He won reelection in 2006 with 52.28% again Judy Hanna. In the Ohio Senate, Coughlin was Chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services, & Aging Committee from 2004 to 2011.

Among Coughlin’s achievements in office:

• Authored the law creating Ohio’s Amber Alert System, aiding in the safe return of missing and abducted children.

• Authored Ohio’s Prompt Pay law and the Health Care Accountability Act, streamlining the administrative relationship between physicians and insurance companies.

• Co-authored Ohio’s Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act, a comprehensive school-based approach to addressing child obesity and wellness.

• Co-authored Ohio’s law protecting private property owners from unwarranted takings of land through eminent domain.

• Sponsored Ohio’s election reform law implementing the Help American Vote Act requirements and reducing voter fraud.

• Authored law helping Ohio’s sheriff’s to better protect communities from sex offenders.

• Authored legislation creating Ohio’s special needs scholarship for children with special need to attend the school of their choice.

In 2008, Coughlin supported an effort to oust longtime Summit County
Summit County, Ohio
Summit County is an urban county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 542,899. In the 2010 Census the population was 541,781. Its county seat is Akron...

 Republican Chair Alex Arshinkoff. That effort failed.

By 2010, Coughlin was unable to run for reelection due to term limits. He briefly considered but declined a bid to become the Governor of Ohio.
Appearing on Ohio News Network's Capitol Square program in 2010, Coughlin said he is taking some time off to pursue commercial interests but that he may run for office again.

Coughlin formed an exploratory committee to consider a run for United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 in 2012
United States Senate election in Ohio, 2012
The 2012 United States Senate election in Ohio will take place on November 6, 2012 concurrently with the 2012 U.S. presidential election as well as other elections to the United States Senate and House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator...

. In October 2011 he announced he would not run citing incumbent Sherrod Brown's strong polling numbers.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK