As an attorney, Blessing worked from the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court before being elected as a Colerain Township Trustee.

With term limits newly enacted and looming, eight-term incumbent Stanley Aronoff decided to retire in 1996 before being forced out of the Senate.

He also serves on the committees of criminal justice, rules and reference (as chairman); health and aging and its subcommittee on retirement and pensions; and state government and elections.

Along with Tracy Maxwell Heard, Blessing has introduced a plan to reduce Ohio's rising prison population and use part of the expected cost savings to strengthen felony probation supervision.

As a member of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, Blessing played a key role in shaping a bill on collective bargaining reform, which will go forth to limit such for public employees.

He favored limiting the same provisions for firefighters and law enforcement, although some cite Wisconsin's bill as allowing their collective bargaining to continue.

The legislation was criticized by the nonprofit group Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which opposed the law as erecting barriers to the right to vote.