ASHLAND — Walk into the office of Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, and you’re likely to find three things– his business card, a map of Medina Public Square and a copy of The Ashbrook Center’s 50 Core Documents.
“What you’re doing at Ashbrook has had a tremendous influence on me,” Obhof said in his address Tuesday as part of the Ashbrook Center’s Major Issues Lecture Series.
Obhof is president of the Ohio Senate and represents the state’s 22nd Senate District, which includes Medina, Ashland and Richland counties, as well as portions of Holmes County.
Obhof said he tries to remain focused on representing his constituents in a way that does not infringe on their freedom, protecting constituents from other people who may seek to infringe on their liberty and meeting the essential requirements of the constitution.
“I don’t necessarily care what the answer is to a question if the entire question starts with the premise, ‘Hey, this conflicts with the constitution, this infringes on people’s rights, but we’re going to do it anyway because there’s a problem and I want to fix it,'” Obhof said.
To that end, Obhof said he will be holding a press conference Wednesday with free market think tanks The Buckeye Institute and The Mercatus Center to outline findings of a study Mercatus recently conducted.
Obhof said the study shows Ohio has more than 246,000 mandatory regulations, making it the third-most regulated state the center looked at for the study.
“I think the solution to that has to be to reset the mind frame of people working in government agencies,” Obhof said. “You’ve seen this with president Trump saying you can’t have a new regulation unless you get rid of two old ones at the same time.”
Obhof said his guiding philosophy also informed his decision to break from the Ohio Senate majority caucus’s tradition of opening each General Assembly by choosing its top 10 bills to prioritize during the two-year legislative cycle.
“There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but in this General Assembly, when we sat down in our caucus retreat, I said, ‘Okay, let’s talk about our top five principles. Let’s figure out who we are as a senate first,'” Obhof said. “‘Let’s decide what underlying goals we’re trying to achieve, and things that fall within those probably will probably pass, and things that don’t probably will end up in the dust bin.”
This “top-down philosophical approach,” he said, helped the Senate pass legislation to increase penalties for fentanyl traffickers, improve water quality, strengthen workforce development and help human trafficking victims, among others.
Recently, the Senate passed a major bipartisan bill to reform the congressional redistricting process. Obhof said 94 percent of the bills the state Senate passed last year had bipartisan support.
Obhof ended the lecture by taking questions that were submitted by audience members and chosen by the Ashbrook Center.
He touched on responses to the opiate epidemic, advice for students interested in civic life and tips for cooking top-notch barbecue.
On the issue of opiates, Obhof said the state has already passed sentencing reforms and has more of those underway to help non-violent drug offenders access treatment. He said these efforts have reduced recidivism rates.
The state has also worked to expand availability of Narcan for first responders, stepped up seizures by law enforcement and increased penalties for selling fentanyl he said.
On a national scale, Obhof said he believes drug trafficking is a national security issue and should be treated as one.
“I think that the Trump administration gets it, and moving forward I’m cautiously optimistic they’ll take that approach,” he said.
Obhof said he urges anyone passionate about the future of the country, regardless of political party, to get involved.
“If you don’t like the way things are now, or if you think you have ideas you think will make society better, those aren’t going to direct themselves,” he said. “They get taken care of because people like you get motivated and get active.”
On a lighter note, Obhof answered an audience question about what he believes is they key to great barbecue.
“There are different woods that go with different cuts of meat,” he said. “So making sure the flavor profile you’re looking for actually matches up with what you’re trying to cook is pretty important.”
