Career
After graduation from the University of Cincinnati, he received a law degree from Northern Kentucky University. As an attorney, Blessing worked from the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court before being elected as a Colerain Township Trustee.
Blessing's career at the Statehouse began in 1983, when he replaced Representative Helen Fix in a suburban Cincinnati district. He went on to serve seven terms in the House, for a total of fourteen years. He never faced considerable opposition in either a primary or general election throughout his tenure.
With term limits newly enacted and looming, eight-term incumbent Stanley Aronoff decided to retire in 1996 before being forced out of the Senate. As a result, Blessing forfeited an eighth term in the House for a run in the Senate. Facing no opposition in the primary, Blessing went on to win the general election with 65% of the vote. In 2000, Blessing was up for reelection, but was heavily favored in the strongly Republican district. Against Democrat Stuart Manning, Blessing won a second term, securing 63% of the vote.
In December 2002, Blessing, while traveling on I-71 in Ohio, was arrested and charged with a DUI after an Ohio state patrol officer found the state lawmaker had a blood-alcohol level of .11 percent when given a Breathalyzer test, just over the legal limit.
Read more about this topic: Lou Blessing
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)