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Ohio Statehouse Unveils Seven New State Speaker Portraits

photo of unveiled Ohio Speaker portraits
LESLIE ADAMS
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
The seven portraits of former Ohio State Speakers unveiled (pictured) included current Secretary of State Jon Husted, Armond Budish and Bill Batchelder.

Political figures past and present were on hand in the Statehouse rotunda to honor seven former speakers of the house, going back 50 years.  The ceremony was used to unveil portraits of those former leaders.

Republican former Speaker Bill Batchelder, who served from 2011 to 2015, was very pleased with his portrait by Leslie Adams.

photo of Bill Batchelder with his portrait
Credit KAREN KASLER / STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Former Speaker Bill Batchelder (pictured) stands next to his portrait.

“Oh, it’s beautiful. It’s just beautiful. As a matter of fact, I don’t look that good.”

Batchelder’s Democratic predecessor Armond Budish was similarly humble about his portrait by Daniel Greene.

“It’s hard to make me look good. They had to put me in the right light and touch it up about 50 times, but they did a nice job.”

Portraits of Charles Kurfess, A.G. Lancione, Vern Riffe, Larry Householder and Jon Husted were also unveiled. The first woman House Speaker, JoAnn Davidson, was the first to have a portrait, back in 2013.

The portraits featured include:

  • Charles F. Kurfess (R) 1967 - 1972 by Ned Bittinger
  • A.G. Lancione (D) 1973-1975 by Ned Bittinger
  • Vernal G. Riffe Jr. (D) 1975 - 1995 by Daniel E. Greene
  • Larry Householder (R) 2001 - 2005 by Daniel E. Greene
  • Jon A. Husted (R) 2005 - 2009 by Ned Bittinger
  • Armond Budish (D) 2009 - 2011 by Daniel E. Greene
  • William G. Batchelder (R) 2011 - 2015 by Leslie Adams
Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.