Majority of voters; finally council, too

Although Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government has had two female mayors and three female vice mayors, it wasn’t until last week that women had ever constituted a majority of the Urban County Council.

Great, even if late.

The U.S. Census reports that women make up 50.8 percent of the Lexington-Fayette population. According to the state board of elections, they make up 53.8 percent of the county’s registered voters.

Women reached the council majority when Kathy Plomin was sworn in to represent the 12th District. Plomin was in a race to replace incumbent Russ Hensley who abruptly resigned from the council and the race last month.

Only one seat remains contested this fall but both candidates are female; so the eight-women, seven-men balance on the council will not change.

Also encouraging in the long, long battle for women to achieve equal representation in public office: Lou Anna Red Corn as the Fayette commonwealth’s attorney, the first woman to ever serve as the county’s top prosecutor.

Red Corn, a veteran on prosecutor’s staff, was appointed by Gov. Matt Bevin to serve out the term of Ray Larson who retired after almost 32 years in the job.

Fayette County remains an outlier in Kentucky, where women still constitute a distinct minority among public office holders.

As we noted here earlier this year, in the Kentucky General Assembly, only four of 38 Senators, 10.5 percent, are female and 18 of 100 members of the House. The U.S. Congress is 19.4 percent female which, although better than Kentucky, is still far shy of proportional representation.

This story was originally published October 11, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Majority of voters; finally council, too."