In-person early voting at county Board of Elections offices began Tuesday and continues through Nov. 3, including the two Saturdays and two Sundays before Election Day. Absentee voting by mail began Tuesday and ends with a postmark deadline of Nov. 4.
Dan McGregor
This is McGregor’s first bid for office, and he said he has been an Ohio resident for four years, currently living in Beavercreek.
He said running for state senator felt “very natural to me,” and that he wants to make a difference for future generations. His career has been in engineering services, research and development, technical sales and he was a residential and commercial mortgage broker.
McGregor’s top priorities include addressing public school funding, building a “family-friendly economy” and addressing human-caused climate change.
He said that when he moved to Ohio, he was surprised to learn that the state’s schools rely on local tax levies for much of their funding.
“I’ve never lived anywhere where the voters were presented with school funding levies with the kind of frequency that the voters here are presented with,” McGregor said. “That is something that I think should be remedied.”
McGregor said all stakeholders in a district need to have a longer-term vision of funding mechanisms, and as a legislator, he would drive to get Ohio away from that mechanism. He said he’d also like to see private schools held up to the same standards as public, and wants auditing processes for school vouchers.
McGregor said Ohio’s recently enacted Fair School Funding Plan is not yet being funded in the prescribed manner. He said it should be funded before anything else.
McGregor said Ohio should look to other states to gain an idea of their funding mechanisms to see if they can be applied here.
McGregor said when he came to Ohio in 2020, he quickly learned about gerrymandering in the state.
“The reason that I think gerrymandering is so dangerous for Ohio the way it’s happening right now is because it is threatening, at its very core, our checks and balances in the state,” McGregor said.
McGregor supports Issue 1, which would change the process by which state and federal legislative district maps are drawn. It would replace the current commission of elected politicians with an appointed commission of citizens from both major political parties who have no professional affiliation with politics.
McGregor said his campaign slogan is “Bring balance back to Ohio,” as Republicans’ supermajorities in the state legislature are not reflective of recent statewide voting results. He said his election as a Democrat would play a part in that, as well as passing Issue 1 to more accurately represent state voters.
Springfield, McGregor’s city of residence, has gained national attention and become fodder for the immigration debate, with around 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants believed to be in the area.
McGregor said the majority of these immigrants are here legally under Temporary Protected Status, though there is a “discernible impact on resources” like schooling and healthcare. He said state legislators should assess what areas are feeling the most strain and come up with plans to address those issues.
“Otherwise, we have a duty to care and a duty to be empathetic towards individuals that are here legally, and ... it’s to our benefit to acknowledge the positive elements of what they bring to the community,” McGregor said.
He said this population must be protected against employer abuse, “just like any other group within the community needs to be protected,” which will ensure all community members are not taken advantage of.
Asked about a Republican push to reduce or do away with state income tax, McGregor said he would like to look at states with similar funding models to Ohio and see if there are any changes that make sense for here.
Kyle Koehler
Koehler served eight years in the state House of Representatives, and his family has owned and operated K.K. Tools Company Inc. in downtown Springfield since 1972. He is also involved in organizations like the Nehemiah Foundation, Choosing Hope Adoption and the Second Harvest Food Bank.
As a state representative, Koehler was instrumental in passing a law restricting payday lending in the state. It reformed payday lending to close loopholes and clarify statutes regulating the industry.
Koehler said he hears discussions about getting rid of the income tax, but he is more focused on doing away with property taxes. He said he’s not sure these could be worked on at the same time, but either goal will be more achievable if the state stops spending each new dollar it takes in.
The candidate is concerned about each budget increase leading to more dollars spent, and new programs being instituted but never retired once they may no longer be needed, he said.
Koehler said immigration is an issue facing District 10, not just Springfield. He said it is causing particular challenges to housing, and he has concerns about there being overcrowding in homes in Springfield, Xenia and Wilmington.
There is little the state can do about the presence of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Koehler said, but he said he hopes they come here to work. He said he is disappointed by complaints they are stealing longtime residents’ benefits, because he doesn’t view public assistance a benefit, but as something for specific people who are hurting and need help.
He said that it is important for the government to work to allow people to afford things rather than making things affordable, and get people off of public assistance.
Koehler advocated for a requirement that those receiving public assistance who are able-bodied and between the ages of 18-55 should work, train or go to school for 20 hours a week, as he said that could help build them up and give them independence later.
“I’m saying if you are able bodied and you have, in my opinion, nothing else to do during the day, then go to school, get training, go work 20 hours at any job so you can get those skills that are needed,” Koehler said.
Multiple assistance programs already include work requirement terms, such as SNAP (food stamps), or require a self-sufficiency contract, such as Ohio Works First cash assistance.
Koehler said he wants to see Haitian immigrants and citizens competing for jobs, and if elected, he will immediately look into legislation regarding driving concerns, but make sure that any legislation requiring driver’s education for immigrants makes sense.
“If a businessman from Germany comes to Ohio to work at Rittal because it’s a German-based company, and he has a driver’s license from Germany where he drives on the Autobahn at 100 miles an hour, I want him to be able to get a driver’s license easily,” Koehler said. “But at the same time, if somebody’s coming from a third world country where they’ve never owned cars, they don’t know the laws, they don’t know the language, then by goodness we need to have them take some driver’s education because they’re no different than a 16-year-old kid who’s never driven before and doesn’t know the laws.”
He said the state or cities also do not need to give tax credits to every builder because “they’re dying to build homes. People are dying to buy the homes. A lot of times we’re spending tax dollars that we don’t need to.”
Koehler said the current Fair School Funding Plan is effective and he believes that we should give the formula a chance to work and stop changing things with the school system constantly.
“My hope is that I will serve on the education committee in the Senate and that we can somehow give schools a pause and say, ‘OK, no more changing the rules, no more changing the testing, no more changing the funding, no more COVID, no more,’” Koehler said. “Just start teaching the kids and let’s see if we’ve got it right.”
Koehler said he thinks the current political map-drawing system works, and that Issue 1 would select map drawers who are not accountable to the voters. He said that using elected officials to create the maps allows voters to directly decide who those people are.
“It’s up to the Ohio voters who those people are; you can’t gerrymander the governor’s race or the auditor’s race, the secretary of state’s race,” Koehler said. “If you don’t like the maps you can always pick a new governor in four years ...”
About the Author