Cherlynn Stevenson for Kentucky House District 88

The Republican name on the ballot will be familiar when voters in southern Lexington’s House District 88 go to elect a new representative.

Bill Farmer Jr. is again seeking the seat he held for a decade after first being elected in 2002. Farmer, thankfully, has rebounded from the rheumatoid arthritis that prompted him to give up the commute to Frankfort in 2012. The winner on Nov. 6 will succeed three-term incumbent Rep. Robert Benvenuti who did not seek re-election.

The seat traditionally goes to a Republican, but voters should send a timely pro-education message by electing Democrat Cherlynn Stevenson.

Stevenson has run an energetic campaign. She would bring the same high energy to the legislature, advocating for education, access to health care, workers’ rights and renewable energy at a time when all of those things are at risk from the Republicans who control the House, Senate and governorship.

Stevenson is well known in the 88th District because of her volunteerism and her business, which plans events for nonprofits such as the Breeders Cup. She has worked with Lexington's Hope Center; Habitat for Humanity; CASA, which provides court-appointed advocates for abused and neglected children; the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society. Before starting her own business she worked in corporate wellness and is keenly aware of Kentucky’s many health challenges.

A native of Hindman in Eastern Kentucky, with family roots in coal mining and public schools, Stevenson has the self-assurance to quickly make herself known in Frankfort. Stevenson said she was motivated to run by concern for her mother, a retired teacher, who wasn’t healthy enough to join last winter’s Capitol protests against attempts to deprive future teachers of defined-benefits pensions amid Gov. Matt Bevin’s contemptuous rhetoric.

Voters can disregard the comically disingenuous campaign by national Republicans to paint Stevenson as a tool of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi and, of all things, an agitator for open borders (as if the Kentucky legislature has any control of international borders).

Stevenson does support legalizing medical marijuana and expanded gaming to increase state revenue.

Farmer, who this paper has endorsed in the past, runs his own tax preparation business. He would be a moderate voice in an increasingly right-wing Republican caucus, though we disagree with his inclination to do away with the state income tax in favor of more regressive taxes on sales and services.

Level-headed, genial and cautious, Farmer eschews the polarized histrionics of politics today, and does not emphasize divisive social issues. He rightfully bemoans the dismantling of the non-partisan Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center. He parts company with Bevin by stressing the advantages of a defined-benefits pension for teachers, and is also open to both medical and recreational marijuana in Kentucky.

This moment, though, belongs to Stevenson. If 2018, with all its political upheaval, is to go down as a turning point in American politics, energized, upstart, first-time citizen-legislators, many of them women, will lead the way. We look forward to that new direction.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 7:10 PM.