Summit County has elected its first female county executive.
Democrat Ilene Shapiro defeated Republican challenger Bill Roemer on Election Day by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent.
Shapiro, an Akron resident, sought a full term as executive after being appointed to the office in August following the death of Russ Pry.
Roemer, a former Ameritech executive, previously served a four-year at-large term on the council and is a certified public accountant.
Shapiro is the first woman elected to hold Summit County’s top position in its 35 years as a charter county and the first woman in Ohio to acquire the position.
The former County Council president served on the council for more than nine years. She is a former senior vice president of sales with FirstMerit Corp. and director of strategic alliances at the Summa Foundation. She also started a beauty supply business and owned a consulting business.
Shapiro has long supported women’s issues and has taught classes to women wanting to run for office. She and several other local women started the Women’s Endowment Fund that supports organizations benefiting women in Summit County.
In a closer race for county clerk of courts, incumbent Sandra Kurt, a Democrat, defeated Republican Ann Marie O’Brien by margin of 53 percent to 47 percent. Kurt was appointed in January to complete the remaining year of Dan Horrigan’s term when he was elected Akron mayor.
Kurt was an industrial engineer for 30 years with Goodyear and held an at-large seat on Summit County Council where she was vice president of council.
O’Brien, a judicial attorney in Summit County Common Pleas Court and former president of the Akron Bar Association, is a political newcomer.
Two other Democratic incumbents in key races, the prosecutor and fiscal officer, won by larger margins.
Incumbent Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, a Democratic, will serve her fifth, four-year term. She defeated her Republican opponent, John Chapman, the former prosecutor in Cuyahoga Falls and Munroe Falls, by 64 percent to 36 percent.
Walsh, a Democrat, has held the position for the 16 years. She said her top priority if re-elected will be resurrecting the idea of shifting felony defense representation for the poor from private attorneys to a public defender’s office.
Walsh said the switch would save the county money, make the court schedule move more smoothly and result in better representation of felony defendants by public defenders whose work would be supervised.
In the fiscal officer race, incumbent Summit County Fiscal Officer Kristen Scalise, a Democrat, bested her opponent with a 65 to 35 percent lead. She faced minimal opposition in her re-election bid.
Her challenger, Republican Cuyahoga Falls City Councilman Jeff Iula, did not actively campaign. He admitted that he only ran to provide voters with a choice.
Scalise has worked in the fiscal office for 16 years. She campaigned on her county experience, as well as her credentials as a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner. She was appointed to the post in 2011 and then won a four-year term the following year.
Iula has been on the Falls council since 2010 and is best known in the community as the former general manager of the All-American Soap Box Derby and co-author of the book How I Saw It: My Photographic Memory of the Soap Box Derby.
Two other county officers ran unopposed in this election, Sheriff Steve Barry and Engineer Al Brubaker, both Democrats.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.