New boundaries put 27th District into play in state Senate race between Roegner, Goetz

Summit County voters will choose between a current Ohio state senator and a child and adolescent psychiatrist as their choice for the state's 27th Senate District.

Republican Kristina Roegner, a current Ohio state senator, and Democrat Patricia Goetz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, are the candidates.

After the lengthy redistricting process, the new 27th District represents the majority of Summit County, except for most of Akron and Tallmadge, which is in the 28th District. The four-year term for the seat starts Jan. 1. According to the popular redistricting website Dave's Redistricting App, the 27th District is expected to lean Democratic.

Ohioans are picking new state lawmakers using maps that the Ohio Supreme Court rejected as unconstitutional, saying they unfairly favor Republicans. Federal judges picked the maps that barely passed the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which will need to craft different maps for 2024. Ohioans' voting preferences amount to 54% for Republican candidates and 46% for Democratic ones.

Kristina Roegner

Republican Kristina Roegner of Hudson currently represents Ohio's 27th Senate District, but the district she's running for in November has different boundaries than the existing one.

Roegner currently represents all of Wayne County; the northern and western parts of Summit County; and a western strip of Stark County. In addition to covering much of Summit County only, the redrawn 27th district also includes Portage and Geauga counties.

According to her biography, Roegner, who is in her first term in the Ohio Senate, chairs the Government Oversight and Reform Committee and is vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. She's also on the Health Committee, Transportation Committee, Tax Expenditure Review Committee and Joint Committee on Force Accounts, the last of which she co-chairs. She served four terms in the Ohio House from 2011 to 2018 and was on Hudson City Council from 2005 to 2010.

She previously worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. and a field engineer and project manager for Westinghouse Power Generation Service Division. She earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Tufts University and a master's degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and strategic management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Roegner and her husband have three daughters and live in Hudson.

Roegner said that while in the state Senate, she's had 10 bills signed into law by the governor. She said her focuses in the office have been on occupational licensure compacts, cutting regulations and taxation.

Five of the 10 bills were related to occupational licensure compacts: one each for nurses, doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists and counselors.

"If you were a physical therapist or any of the professions I mentioned, you get an occupational license, so that's basically permission to operate in that state," she said. "Now, once Ohio has joined the compact of states...your occupational license is good — it's called a multistate license — it's good in all of those states that have joined the compact...The reason I'm excited about this is because it’s real work helping real people.”

Roegner said if reelected, she'd like continue work on occupational licensure compacts for teachers and other medical professionals.

On regulations, Roegner said Senate Bill 9 cuts the number of regulations in the state by 30%, with a target of 10% a year over the next three years.

"The idea there is to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy, unnecessary red tape," she said. "Anybody that comes across a regulation that they think doesn't make sense anymore, it's outdated or it's duplicative or something, let us know, we want to get rid of that."

On taxation, Roegner said the state's personal income tax has been reduced, and many tax brackets have been eliminated, along with eliminating the estate tax.

"I believe the private sector creates jobs that fuel our economy. It's not government creating the jobs," she said. "But what government can do — we have a very important role — and that is setting a stage that's inviting to business, and everything that I just listed feeds into that.”

Roegner has also sponsored bills that would all but eliminate abortion in Ohio and ban transgender girls from female sports.

Senate Bill 123 would prohibit a person from intentionally causing an abortion, while ensuring the person receiving the abortion is protected from prosecution. It would ban all abortions, except to prevent the death or serious injury of pregnant women in limited cases. The bill is a "trigger law" that could only go into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Roegner previously told the Beacon Journal that her faith strongly influences her position on matters of ending a life. In the last General Assembly, she co-sponsored a bill to end the death penalty.

Senate Bill 123 remains in committee. Ohio's current six-week abortion ban is currently blocked by a court order. Senate Bill 132, on banning transgender girls from female sports, also remains in committee.

Patricia Goetz

Democrat Patricia Goetz of Hudson is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who has limited her work commitments to part-time consulting positions.

A Northeast Ohio resident for 34 years who grew up in Toledo, Goetz graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1974 and moved in 2005 to Hudson.

"I worked as a waitress and as a lifeguard and as a clerk to put myself through college and medical school, so I paid my own way totally," she said. "I tell people that because I want them to know that I know work hard, and I know our service people don't get paid enough. I can tell you that from firsthand."

Goetz is an assistant clinical professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, a member of the Western Reserve Community Band and a member of the Rotary Club of Hudson. She previously served on the boards of The Coalition for Children’s Mental Health and the Portage County Mental Health Board.

Goetz's work experience includes as a consultant to the Ohio Department of Mental Health's children's office, chief clinical officer of the Stark County Mental Health Board and the first female president of the medical staff at Laurelwood Hospital, along with doing in-home psychiatry visits for 20 years.

A mother of three, Goetz's oldest daughter is an attorney, her middle daughter died 20 years ago and her youngest daughter is developmentally disabled. Her husband died 14 years ago from Lou Gehrig's disease. She also spent a year in an orphanage as a 6½-year-old child after her mother died before being adopted, which she said gave her insight into the state's foster care system.

"I decided to jump in because I feel so passionate about what children need, and I wanted to do this for my grandkids and everybody else's kids," she said. "Having been a child psychiatrist for 40 years, I really know a lot about children and families."

According to her website, which describes her as a "champion for science and facts" "who isn’t afraid to stand up to extremists or special interests in the political arena," Goetz is pro-abortion rights, supports reinstituting Ohio's concealed carry law and mandatory training for gun use, and opposes guns in schools.

Goetz is pro-union and opposes "right to work" laws. She supports creating new jobs in the sustainable energy sector; increased funding for mental health, addiction and developmental disabilities; and grants for prevention programs in health care and mental health care.

She said she supports the expanded use of renewable energy and would work to overturn House Bill 6.

Goetz said she would work to expand the property tax deduction available to Ohio seniors, and she supports raising the income eligibility limits for Medicaid expansion and restricting the number of seniors under the direct care of nursing home staffs.

On education, Goetz said she supports teachers and would want to increase funding for schools. She supports the "Fair Funding Plan” to reform public education resources and supports charter schools having the same rules and oversight as public schools, while she opposes the "Backpack Bill" and universal vouchers. She also supports free or very reduced tuition for Ohio residents at the state's community colleges.

Goetz said the current criminal justice system is "broken and in dire need of major reforms" with "systematic racism inherent in current policies." She said she supports independent civilian oversight boards for law enforcement accountability, increased crisis intervention and de-escalation training for police officers and additional funding for PTSD counseling for officers in need.

She also said she supports proposals to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, regulating it like alcohol for adults 21 and over.

"I've worked with state government. I've worked with county government. I've worked with juvenile courts. I've gone to schools," she said. "I’m really passionate about kids, about better schooling, about better health care, better mental health care and better care for developmental disabilities."

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Contact Beacon Journal reporter Emily Mills at emills@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter @EmilyMills818.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Roegner, Goetz running for Ohio's 27th state senate district