Close primary races decide 2 Lexington council seats. Here’s who’s on November ballot.
A marketing specialist with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning will face a University of Kentucky career counselor in the November general election for a key downtown Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council seat.
Jessica Mohler was the top vote-getter in the four-way primary for the 3rd District race with 1,296 votes, according to unofficial results released Tuesday. A close second was Hannah LeGris with 1,270 votes.
In third was Christine Stanley, a lawyer. Charles D. Smith, a retired state employee, was fourth.
The top two vote-getters in the Tuesday primary move on to the general election. The race is nonpartisan.
The 3rd Council District includes much of downtown and many of the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Kentucky. Late Councilman Jake Gibbs announced last year he was not running for re-election.
In the second contested primary for another open council seat, Willy Fogle, a former councilman, garnered 2,482 votes according to unofficial results. He will face second-place finisher Whitney Elliott Baxter in the 9th District race in November. Baxter, a real estate agent, received 2,251 votes.
In third place was Colby Khoshreza, a lawyer, and in fourth place was Jacob Glancy, a small business owner.
The seat is currently held by Councilwoman Jennifer Mossotti, who announced earlier this year that she would not seek re-election.
The 9th Council District includes neighborhoods in the Reynolds Road area.
In addition to races in the 3rd and 9th Districts, there will be three contested council races in the November general election. That’s far less than the 11 contested council races in November 2018.
Other contested council races include:
▪ District 5: Bill Farmer Jr., a jeweler and small business owner, is in his fifth term representing the district that includes Chevy Chase and the near south side neighborhoods. Farmer will face Liz Sheehan, a UK psychology senior lecturer, who unsuccessfully tried to oust Farmer in 2018.
▪ District 6: Angela Evans, a lawyer who is in her third term, will face David Kloiber, a first-time candidate who is the president of the Kloiber Foundation. The 6th District includes neighborhoods along the Winchester Road corridor, including Hamburg.
▪ District 8: Fred Brown will face Christian Motley in a repeat of the 2018 race. Motley was booted from the ballot after Brown successfully sued Motley over the number of valid signatures on Motley’s petition. Candidates must get 100 signatures of voters in their district to file for office. Brown, an accountant, is in his third term. He previously served on the council in the 1990s. Motley has worked in early childhood education in former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration and in former President Barack Obama’s administration.
3rd District results:
Jessica Mohler: 1,296
Hannah LeGris: 1,270
Christine Stanley:, 1,103
Charles Smith: 494
9th District results:
Willy Fogle: 2,482
Whitney Elliott Baxter: 2,251
Colby Khoshreza: 2,003
Jacob Glancy : 1,324
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 10:54 AM.
