The narrow margin that Democrats will hold will likely mean few highly-charged votes, he said.
"Nobody wants a lot of partisan votes when it's this tight," he said. "That may be good or that may be bad, but I've seen that's usually the case."
Batchelder ticked off job creation and making college more affordable as top priorities for his caucus coming this January.
"We absolutely need to get more productivity out of higher education," he said.
Joining Batchelder's ticket are Cincinnati Rep. Lou Blessing as assistant minority leader, Sidney Rep. John Adams as minority whip and Powell Rep. Kris Jordan as assistant minority whip.
Batchelder said he would be glad to use his decades of experience drafting bills to help Budish draw up legislation even if he can't support it.
"I used to do that all the time for (former Democratic governor) Dick Celeste," he said