Manlius Town Councilor Sandy Schepp has defeated Syracuse real estate broker Gary Morris Sr. in the race for Onondaga County Clerk.
With 100 percent of the votes counted, the Republican from Manlius had 87,994 votes to the Democrat Morris’s 83,442. Schepp succeeds Republican M. Ann Ciarpelli, who retired in July after serving 16 years as county clerk.
“I want to thank everyone, including my children,” Schepp told a roomful of Republicans gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in East Syracuse. “Everyone knows that running a campaign is a great sacrifice. The time away from your family is unbelievable, and I can’t express my gratitude to them.”
Schepp also thanked Onondaga County GOP Chair Tom Dadey for keeping her motivated throughout the campaign.
“Come another day, I will miss my morning calls when he calls me and says, ‘What are you doin’?’ I truly will not miss that,” she said. “But every day that Tom calls and asks you that, you need that, and I truly appreciate every time he’s done that. Because when you are running day and night, and every door you’re knocking on and every event you’re going to, you need a Tom Dadey there to get you through the day, and I appreciate every phone call. Even though I said I didn’t, I do.”
Schepp said she looks forward to making the clerk’s office “new, more efficient, more user-friendly for the taxpayers of this county” starting Jan. 1.
“We’ll roll up our sleeves and we’ll take that office into the next century,” she said.
Sarah Hall contributed to this report.
