COLUMBUS (AP) - While term limits were meant to end lawmaking as a career, some politicians are continuing to extend their stay in Columbus. All five of the Ohio Senate's newly elected members sworn in Monday are simply switching from the House.

And in the House, Cincinnati Republican Lou Blessing became the first Ohio lawmaker to leave for the Senate because of term limits, then return to the House because of term limits.

Such chamber switching is legal and can go on continually under term limits Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved in 1992. The constitutional amendment limits candidates to eight years in either the House or Senate but allows them to return to a chamber after four years away.

The 99 representatives and 33 senators who make up the 126th General Assembly were sworn in Monday. The House then chose Kettering Republican Jon Husted as speaker and the Senate elected Ashland Republican Bill Harris as president.

While outgoing Senate President Doug White - who's not going far since Gov. Bob Taft appointed him state commerce director - served in the leadership position for two years before being term-limited, Harris could keep the helm until 2010 if members keep choosing him.

House experience means the four GOP newcomers to the Senate ''will have very good committee assignments,'' said Harris, who announces the assignments on Tuesday. ''I'll be able to make those assignments because of the experience they have.''

Sen. Gary Cates of West Chester and Sen. Patricia Clancy of Cincinnati were in House leadership positions. They're joined by new Sens. Tom Niehaus of New Richmond and Timothy Grendell of Chesterland. The Democrat is Sen. Charles Wilson Jr. of Bridgeport.

Critics of term limits have said their biggest drawback is removing experience from lawmaking, giving lobbyists and bureaucrats more control over legislation.

Clancy, who was majority floor leader in the House, said knowing key House leaders will help with better relations between the chambers.

She said switching is relatively rare. ''Collectively, you would find there are more people who would say this is a brand new Legislature,'' Clancy said.

In the previous two-year session, three House members were former senators and 24 senators used to serve in the House.

David Zanotti, president of the conservative Ohio Roundtable who campaigned to get term limits adopted, said his group doesn't oppose chamber-hopping because the amendment was intended to stop decades-long terms in one seat.

Zanotti added that moving from the House to the Senate was essentially a promotion.

''If a person earns that right from that many voters, they deserve to be there,'' he said. ''We have no problems with it.''

Harris and Husted both said reviving Ohio's economy is paramount, starting with restraint in the state's next two-year budget that begins in July and revising Ohio's tax code.

Husted said he was subjected to some lobbying in his own home when his 9-year-old son, Alex, learned he was to lead the House.

''He asked if I would eliminate the fourth-grade proficiency test,'' he said.