Mary Swain
Age: 55
Experience: Swain has more than two decades of experience in the Butler County Common Pleas Court and in court administration for the past eight years. She was recently re-elected to her fifth term to the Ohio GOP Central Committee for Butler County. She has been involved with the local Republican Party for 25 years and twice served on the Ohio Judicial Committee.
Why she wants the job: Swain said there’s a communication problem in the clerk of courts office and will work to address that issue. Being involved in the court system for 22 years, Swain said she knows how communication works best between the courts and the clerk.
“It’s not the details and the minutia but it’s how to manage the office and that’s what I do.”
What she would do: Swain said phone and electronic communication in the clerk’s office is essentially bottlenecked. There’s one phone line and one e-mail for the public, and messages are then disseminated.
“There are communication issues that need to be fixed and things that need to be resolved,” she said.
FAIRFIELD — The Butler County Republican Party on Wednesday night selected the new county clerk of courts in a close election held at Tori’s Station in Fairfield.
Mary Swain, 55, narrowly defeated Interim Clerk Jeff Wyrick in a 115-105 vote to fill the post left vacant by Cindy Carpenter, who was sworn in Jan. 3 as a county commissioner.
“I will do the best job that I can, and I will get elected in 2012,” Swain said after the more than 200 members of the Butler County GOP central committee twice cast ballots in the close race.
Swain has more than two decades of experience in the Butler County Common Pleas Court, with the past eight years in court administration.
She was recently re-elected to her fifth term to the Ohio GOP Central Committee for Butler County and has been involved with the local Republican Party for 25 years.
Also vying for the Clerk of Courts post was Steve Morgan, 53, who is a Fairfield Twp. trustee and the owner of Five Points Market in Hamilton and M&M Used Cars.
Wyrick garnered 99 votes in the first ballot in which Swain defeated him by just six votes. Morgan, with 22 votes, was eliminated after the first round. In the second vote, Swain was named clerk after receiving 10 more votes than Wyrick.
Wyrick, 43, has worked in the clerk’s office for 10 years and was sworn in Jan. 3 as interim clerk.
In defeat, he thanked Carpenter and others with the central committee for their support and told Swain she was “inheriting a wonderful staff.”
Swain told committee members she plans to hit the ground running.
“The culture of excessive spending is over,” Swain said. “I will build an efficient team and will put together a team that will win in 2012.”
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