Carolyn Brakey, president of the Geauga County Board of Health, announced June 10 she is running as a Republican for Geauga County commissioner to tackle what she calls government dysfunction.
Carolyn Brakey, president of the Geauga County Board of Health, announced June 10 she is running as a Republican for Geauga County commissioner to tackle what she calls government dysfunction.
A Russell Township resident and attorney, Brakey is seeking one of two county commissioner seats —which Ralph Spidalieri and Tim Lennon currently hold — that will be open in the November 2024 general election.
During a meet-and-greet event at the home of Shanley and Dane Davis in Bainbridge Township, Brakey told a crowd of about 75 she has shown she can work pro- fessionally and collaboratively with politically diverse men and women on the health board and contrasted that cooperative spirit with current county officials.
“Those who hold positions of power in the upper echelons of county government are quick to concede that their relationships are irreparably broken,” Brakey said in a press release. “The two commissioners up for reelection literally aren’t on speaking terms with many other county officials, let alone collaborating to solve Geauga’s problems.”
Brakey said her work on the health board has resulted in extensive reforms to the department, making it more efficient and responsive while cutting regulations. She added her critique of Lennon and Spidalieri is not personal.
“I actually like both men who are up for reelection. I’m certainly not claiming this extreme dysfunction is exclusively their fault,” she said in the release. “Yet, we know success has many fathers, but failure is always an orphan. Like any orphan, do you know what our failing county government desperately needs? A mom.”
Lennon did not respond to a request for comment and Spidalieri declined to comment at this time.
Brakey said her “political origin story” is simple, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to her political engagement.
“Up until 2020, I was an apolitical mom. But they hurt our kids too often and for too long. Enough was enough,” Brakey said, adding she was the principal author of Geauga Public Health’s August 2022 COVID Guidance in Schools, which “affirmed parental mask choice, ended quarantine recommendations for the healthy and championed personal freedom over government mandates.”
All Geauga County schools ended their COVID procedures immediately thereafter, and one — West Geauga Schools — expressly cited her guidance as their rationale, she said in a statement.
“I am a fighter,” she said. “Check the receipts. We dismantled Geauga’s COVID regime brick-by-brick with our bare hands. I am proud of who I was then, what I stood for and the actions I took during that terrible period of time; a time when it was so easy to do wrong, but so hard to do right.”
Referencing her campaign tagline — “Better with Brakey” — the candidate said she would bring the same leadership to the board of commissioners.
“We will contract the size and reach of government while expanding individual freedom,” she said. “I will be visible, accessible and active in the community. I will serve as a catalyst to identify needs and drive results. I will work respectfully with all factions within the Geauga GOP and outside of it. I will partner with all who want to move Geauga forward in a more responsive, efficient and virtuous direction.”
Brakey and her husband, Matt, have 8-year-old boy/girl twins and run Brakey Energy, a firm founded in 1999 that provides energy management services to Geauga-based manufacturers and has since expanded to all of Ohio, she said.
Brakey earned her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Grove City College and holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. As a business attorney, she has her own Geauga-based law practice, Brakey Law.
Brakey said she is a member of Fellowship City Church in Bainbridge Township, where she often serves in the children’s ministry. She is the District 3 vice president for the Ohio Federation of Republican Women and in 2021, was honored by Crain’s Cleveland Busi- ness as a Notable General Counsel and as a member of its “Forty Under 40” class.
