Doug Martin

HL reviews Gray’s 1st Year; Predictable people take predictable shots

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January 9, 2012
By David M. F. Schankula

Ms. Fortune looks back on Mayor Gray’s first year, chatting with various observers:

In his first year as mayor, Gray’s main focus has ranged from a grand vision for Rupp Arena to putting the city’s financial house in order.

He dreams big while slogging through the tediousness of running the city.

Terry McBrayer, lawyer, lobbyist and former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said officeholders, whether mayor or president, normally have a three-to-six-month honeymoon. But Gray has been able to extend his, McBrayer said.

“Right now he has the support of a lot of folks out there,” McBrayer said.

Gray garners backing from “a fairly remarkable base that pulls from many different segments,” McBrayer said. “He continues to cultivate that base. I give him pretty high marks for that.”

It’s a long one, fair and balanced, so read on, covering the back and forth with the fire folks, the police and the city workers, as well as some absolutely ridiculous comments from failed Vice Mayor Mike Scanlon and the Southside Screamer, Doug Martin, who each – predictably – play the role of attack dogs for a certain segment of Lexington’s population.

If you believe Scanlon, Gray is responsible for every terrible thing that ever happened last year. Martin, on the other hand, stumbles in his attacks, basically denouncing Gray’s tenure a failure because Jim hasn’t joined Doug for a Hoveround tour of Doug’s district. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

One question I’d like to hear Scanlon, Martin or anyone else answer… with one year gone, who is positioning themselves to challenge Gray in 2014? Who in town is going to run for Mayor? Will they come from the Right? The Left?

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Will H-L Ed Board run B&P out of town?

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November 18, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Seriously. Three editorials in one day? If they kept that up and just started a blog, Barefoot would go out of business. All our ad revenue would be sucked up and no one would ever stop by. We could just close up shop.

Here’s the HLEB on the water company:

The financial fallout of Lexington’s past error in outsourcing its water supply provides a cautionary tale. The board that oversees Louisville’s public water utility just passed a 3.75 percent rate increase, the same as last year, and will pay a $19.2 million dividend to the city. Meanwhile, Kentucky American, our private water supplier, which pays dividends only to its shareholders, got approval for a 29 percent rate increase last year and can be expected to go for another soon.

Here’s the HLEB on the hiring/firing issue:

[T]he administration of Mayor Jim Gray did the right thing by asking Cheryl Taylor to resign when it became clear that she had been involved in seeking work for her husband, an electrical contractor, through the department she oversaw. That’s nepotism and it is rightly outlawed under our city charter.

And here’s the HLEB on Doug “F*ck You!” Martin:

Closing Kearney a hack idea to help private developers

Councilman Doug Martin has upped the ante in the quest by private golf developers to blame public courses for their business woes.

Martin has suggested closing Kearney Hill Links, by far the city’s finest venue, and one of the Midwest’s truly great municipal layouts.

That last one’s a doozy… so check it out in full.

But you see what I mean. It’s like B&P barely needs to exist anymore if they keep churning ‘em out at that rate. Slow down! You’re scaring us.

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Hiring & Firing & Resigning at LFUCG’s Environmental Quality and Public Works Division

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November 17, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Over the past week-and-half, there’s been some salivating going on. The Gray Administration’s Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works resigned, saying she’d been asked to step down, and emailed people throughout LFUCG in order to fire the first shot.

The Gray Administration has kept quiet and, in response, the usual voices in LFUCG — let’s call them Team Newberry, who know a bit about obstruction and cronyism — have tried to frame the debate as if the Gray administration had something to hide.

Which is a fine place to start from — people in positions of power should be viewed skeptically, their actions questioned and transparency demanded. That’s all fine, and it’s funny that so many in Team Newberry are now figuring this out.

It should also be interesting to see how the Ed Lanes and Doug Martins handle the latest developments — in which it becomes pretty clear the Gray Administration acted diligently to protect the city; in which it becomes pretty clear Gray’s silence on the matter isn’t a matter of obfuscation but one of legality; and in which it becomes clear that some people really want to hire their husbands even after they’re told multiple times that it ain’t cool.

City officials cautioned Lexington’s former Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works Cheryl Taylor at least three times not to direct city work to her husband, according to emails obtained Wednesday by the Herald-Leader.

Taylor abruptly resigned last week, saying she was asked to step down after the city began investigating whether she inappropriately tried to direct city funds to her husband.

Some of the requests to hire her husband, Robert Taylor, an electrician, were from officials in the Division of Waste Management, under Cheryl Taylor’s supervision. At least two requests were by Taylor herself, according to the transcripts released by the city in response to an open-records request from the Herald-Leader.

On at least three occasions in 2011, Law Commissioner Janet Graham emailed Taylor that her husband could not be hired as a city employee or do contract work for the city because it would violate the city’s nepotism ordinance.

Read the entire article… it is full of hilarity.

On a bright note, Ms. Taylor is well within her right now to hire her husband for anything he wants to do since she no longer works for the city. And he can now get a job with the city because she no longer works there. So… problems solved.

It’s also worth highlighting the fact that Ms. Taylor worked previously in the Newberry Administration as the Environmental Quality Commissioner overseeing Lexington’s sanitary and storm sewer system… before leaving that job to work for Kentucky American Water. It didn’t seem like a particularly good idea to bring her back to begin with and as it turns out, it probably wasn’t.

But perhaps Ms. Taylor could now get re-hired by Lexington’s corporate overlords at KAW as they seek to further screw the city’s taxpayers:

Now investor-owned Kentucky American Water has given six months notice that it’s ending its contract with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government to collect sewer, landfill and water quality (storm water) fees for the city.

Water and sewer bills are natural companions because sewer bills are based on water consumption. Kentucky American was paid $1.6 million a year under its latest billing contract with the city.

….Meanwhile, American Water, Kentucky American’s New Jersey-based parent, says the company’s third-quarter profits were up 2.3 percent — in part because rate increases more than offset declining water consumption.

Ah… American Water forcing rate increases they don’t need as water consumption declines — Team Newberry knows all about that.

Hopefully Martin, Lane, et al., will keep all of this in mind the next time they get their tighties in a twist. Sometimes it’s easier to just excuse yourself and dig a little deeper.

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Maxwell bike lane extension gets axed

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August 23, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

The Maxwell bike lane that was apparently expanded by accident across Woodland to Kentucky Ave. in Lexington’s “Woodland Triangle” is getting cut back to its original size.

After some business owners and landlords complained last week about the loss of parking spots, supporters of the bike lane gathered signatures from tenants — resident and commercial — on the block to request the bike lane remain.

This created competing petitions, one from building owners (including Ramsey’s and the Black Swan) and one from non-owners, and a bit of a logistical hang-up.

If the Council did nothing today, the mistaken bike stripe would be removed and 8 parking spots would be replaced. But was the city now required to honor the petition in support of and requesting the bike lane?

There was a lot of Council sentiment from the usual suspects speaking up for the land owners, with Doug Martin complaining about the “sacrifice” the complaining businesses were experiencing. Ed Lane said he “didn’t think it was fair” to turn a half-block of parking into a bike lane.

Representing the land owners was Nick Nicholson of Stoll Keenon and Ogden, who stated SKO’s address as if it mattered, and he made an impassioned plea on their behalf, saying the new petition was “not representative of the people.”

The Council listened to all this then debated what to do, including seeking clearer guidelines for future such petitions from the parking authority, and sorting the interests of landlords, business owners, home owners and tenants (with the prevailing sentiment seeming to fall on behalf of landlords).

Council-at-Large member Steve Kay questioned whether now that the city had an apparently valid petition before it, was the bike lane itself was now valid.

No one — especially Ed Lane — liked that idea very much but as a point of order, Kay was quite clear: If the petition was in fact valid and the city was going to spend the money replacing the bike lane with the old parking spots, were they then going to be forced to again erase the parking spots and put the bike lane back in.

Lane and Julian Beard both complained about the role of petitions in governance, with Beard insisting that “Petitions are for guidance. We make the law!”

The full council ended up voting — with only two ‘nays,’ Kay and Diane Lawless — to get rid of the bike lane. So… your dreams of a safe ride to the park (or even continuing down High Street) come to a screeching halt at the already dangerous for cars, let alone bicycles, intersection of Maxwell, High and Kentucky.

My favorite part of the whole discussion came at the end, just after the vote, when Doug Martin got up abruptly and strode over to Kevin Stinnett. As Vice Mayor Gorton wrapped up the one topic to move on to the next, Martin could be seen gesturing emphatically and speaking in a hush to Stinnett. Martin then stalked out of the room and Stinnett’s face, which remained quite still the entire time, then — after just a pause — melted into what appeared to be a miffed smile.

So that was either a Martin joke or a classic Clown attack.

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Commerce Lexington falling on hard times? (Not if Doug Martin has anything to F-ing say about it)

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April 11, 2011
By David M. F. Schankula

Last Thursday the Herald-Leader reported on the new draft report from the cut-and-paste consultants at Angelou Economics.

In their disgraced report, one of Angelou’s few original recommendations was to expand the reach and power of Commerce Lexington. After ProgressLex outed Angelou’s bunk report and Angelou and Commerce Lexington came under increased scrutiny, Angelou went back and added into this new draft some language reccomending that the Mayor of Lexington be in charge of the city’s economics. (A radical thought.)

Bob Quick, head of Commerce Lexington, praised the new report as “aggressive” and “forward-looking.” And then he implied that to carry the report out, the city would have to give Commerce Lexington more money.

And there was also this:

AngelouEconomics also provided a draft assessment of Commerce Lexington’s performance compared with peer cities.

Commerce Lexington’s economic development budget of $1.2 million is below the median $1.7 million of a benchmark group that includes Asheville, N.C.; Louisville; Northern Kentucky; Austin, Texas; and Colorado Springs, Colo.

According to Angelou Economics, “Commerce Lexington’s 41 percent public funding is the third-highest of the benchmarked regions,” but the number of private investors is the second-lowest, at 125.

Hmm… 41% public funding.

With the city facing a $25 Million budget shortfall, Mayor Gray — who on Tuesday will deliver his budget address — is likely to demand greater accountability from outside agencies working with LFUCG and funded by LFUCG.

So yesterday, the Herald Leader took a closer look at Commerce Lexington’s relationship with the city:

The role of Commerce Lexington — which has received $2.6 million in taxpayer money for economic development in the last five years — is about to change.

In recent years, the local chamber of commerce organization has guided local economic development efforts as the city took a largely hands-off approach. Commerce Lexington, which says its role is to market Lexington to businesses, provides limited public information about what it does with that city money.

The leaders of Commerce Lexington have good reason to resist calls for transparency from the Herald-Leader given the paper’s recent history of exposing wasteful spending at the Airport, the League of Cities and other publicly funded organizations… so when the paper (Ms. Janet Patton leading the charge) tried to dig deeper into Commerce Lexington’s finances… well:

It is less than clear, from documents recently obtained by the Herald-Leader, exactly what the city gets for its Commerce Lexington investment, which grew from $50,000 a few years ago to more than 10 times that under former Mayor Jim Newberry.

Commerce Lexington maintains that because less than 25 percent of its overall budget comes from public money, it is not subject to open-records laws. The group declined to make additional documents public or to disclose how thousands of dollars in travel money is spent.

As we discussed here last month, Commerce Lexington’s most recent available IRS 990 Form provides some insight into the group’s finances and a stroll through their website paints a nice picture of their private sector funders (you know, local small businesses like Wal-Mart and JP Morgan Chase).

This publicly funded private group of big businesses parading as protectors of small business works actively to lobby government (local, state and federal) to dismantle collective bargaining and other union protections, to break down federal regulations on the coal industry, and to stifle any progress toward real health care reform.

So now Commerce Lexington is unhappy because Mayor Gray is likely to cut the taxpayer funding they are so dependent upon. Gray is likely to backseat Commerce Lexington’s role in the city’s economy… which is huge since under Mayor Newberry, the role of economic development was almost entirely outsourced from city government to Commerce Lexington.

Let’s look back at Mayor Newberry’s innaugural budget. Upon being elected (perhaps as a thank you to his good ol’ boy network), Newberry vastly expanded the role of Commerce Lexington in city planning:

I want to emphasize a few steps designed to enhance our economic development efforts:

Commerce Lexington

First, LFUCG has entered into a services agreement with Commerce Lexington in the amount of $661,500 – a 631% increase over last year’s adopted budget. Through this agreement, we will fund most of our business recruiting efforts. 

Or, put another way:

It’s not clear how much that funding will be slashed under Gray or what steps, exactly, he will take, aside from telling the paper that he expects to be much more involved in the economic decision making of the city than, say, the previous laissez faire Mayor (aka, he who excused the airport and KLC funding frauds).

What is clear is that some of the most powerful members of the City Council are taking a vocal stand against the usual Commerce Lexington blank check — including Vice Mayor Gorton, At-Large Kay and the one guy you really don’t want on your ass, the Council Bulldog Mr. Julian Beard.

Not all council members are upset… cue up an F-Bomb of surprise because…

But council member Doug Martin said reducing economic development spending is not the answer.

“I’m a supporter of the public-private partnership,” Martin said. “I think it’s not whether we need to cut it; it’s whether we need to quadruple it.”

No F-ing Way! Doug Martin wants to give them more F-ing money! Get the F out of here!

No… seriously, get the F out of here and go read Ms. Patton’s full Sunday report on Commerce Lexington’s dire straits if you haven’t already. Nothing will tear at your heartstrings this morning more than yet another protector of big business interests whining and complaining about losing taxpayer dollars.

Hmm… Dire Straits. Money for nothing. That ain’t working.

[You can explore some of Angelou's findings, reports and data here.]

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Stinnett, Martin defend Angelou; Bill Lear threatens Gray

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March 9, 2011
By Joe Sonka

You would think that Mayor Jim Gray getting our $75,000 back from Angelou for his cut-and-paste report would make people happy, but we must remember the Axis of Clown that is working against the mayor and for Commerce Lexington.

What did Councilman Stinnett have to say?

Some members of the Urban County Council who also serve on the Economic Development Steering Committee said they were concerned that the city’s refund effectively severs its investment and partnership in the strategic plan making it difficult to rebuild the public’s confidence in the process. “When you agreed to refund the money to the government we lost our ‘skin in the game,’ so to speak. And I hope you understand the difficulty we’re all going to have in getting back the public buy-in,” Council member Kevin Stinnett said, addressing Angelou.

My goodness, “our” skin is certainly at risk now, isn’t it Kevin? And gosh, why would anyone not want to “buy-in” on this beautiful report and it’s recommendation to fluff Commerce Lexington? We should seriously consider giving Angelou our money back, just so folks don’t get the wrong idea, eh?

How about our old pal Doug Martin?

“It’s very crucial that we keep this public-private partnership so that the temptation of politics does not find itself in the middle of economic development in Lexington,” Council member Doug Martin added. “I think that would be a tragic result of this.“

Oh, man. Yes, Doug Martin thinks it would be “tragic” if politics got involved. This is good, good stuff. I’m going to go ahead and put this quote on the fast-track for the Rootie award.

But those two quotes were just kind of transparently funny. Can anyone step up to the plate with some real read meat?

Hey, it’s Lexington’s Darth Vader himself, the Vice Chair of Economic Development for Commerce Lexington, Bill Lear!

Also attending the Monday steering committee meeting was Lexington development attorney and former state representative Bill Lear. “I’ll bet I’ve read more economic development studies than anybody in this room and 90 percent of every one of them is the same. Just like 90 percent of every presentation on a zoning change I’ve made is the same, and 90 percent of every contract written is the same and 99 percent of every Toyota is the same. What makes the difference is what’s on the margin, not the boilerplate.”

Lear urged the group to remain patient and await Angelou’s final report. “I’ve got the memos about who recommended whom for this job and of the five candidates for this that were recommended by the then vice mayor, now mayor, number two on the list was Angelou Economics, number three was somebody that he specifically said had their roots in Angelou Economics and number four had the same pedigree. There is no question but that this is an absolutely top quality firm. It screwed up. I for one am not willing to cast the first stone because I’m sure as hell not without sin.“

Can you wrap your head around that quote? First of all, we should note that Lexington’s “Super Lawyer” just admitted that he phones it in, so he might be a little overpriced at $500 an hour. Secondly, you’re publicly threatening to blackmail the Mayor of Lexington with info that Angelou was his second choice to write the report? Not only does this call into question the $500 an hour price tag, it calls into question your Darth Vader reputation. Serious weak sauce. And this “casting the first stone” stuff? What exactly is the point here? That Angelou should take back his apology to Lexington for the crappy work that he did for us? That he should have kept our money so he didn’t have a Sad? That criticizing his steaming pile of Xerox is somehow beyond the bounds of decency?

This is all about one thing: the threat that this staggering display of incompetence poses to the good ole boys’ little taxpayer funded lobbying arm. Commerce Lexington has been able to get away with this for years, so the entire Angelou affair must be swept under the rug as quietly as possible. Not their recommendation to give Commerce Lexington more taxpayer money, of course, but all of that other unpleasant stuff.

As much as Stinnett, Martin and Lear would like that to happen, you can pretty much put that notion to rest (and the half-assed threats). It is time for the Airing of Grievances.

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Doug Martin sez: Lexington shouldn’t apsire to be like Boulder, CO

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November 18, 2010
By Joe Sonka

Also, we don’t live in a desert.

From the Great Mind of Doug Martin:

In August, a market assessment was completed that looked at Lexington’s strengths and weaknesses, how the area had been affected by the downturn in the economy, population trends and other business climate issues.

To gauge where Lexington stands, its performance on a variety of measures is being compared to benchmark cities, including Knoxville; Tucson, Ariz.; Boulder, Colo.; and Columbia, S.C.

Councilman Doug Martin objected to the list of comparable cities.

“These are not cities we aspire to be,” Martin said. “We’re not in the desert.”

First of all, I will concede Doug’s excellent point that Lexington in not, in fact, in a desert. I commend him for speaking truth to power.

But let’s look at that quote a little further. We don’t aspire to be like… Boulder, Colorado? Interesting.

While Lexington has finished #1 in the country in biggest carbon footprint and most sexually frustrated, here are some things that Boulder is nationally known for:

  • #9 in arts destination for a small city
  • #1 “America’s Foodiest Town” from Bon Appetit magazine
  • #4 in “Best cities for the next decade”
  • #19 “Best vacation destination in US”
  • #1 “Top 10 Recreation Cities”
  • #4 “Top 10 Earth Friendly Cities”
  • #9 “Top 10 Overall Cities to live in”
  • #1 in country “Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index”
  • #2 “Healthiest Town in U.S.”
  • #1 “Strongest U.S. Housing Markets”
  • #1 “The Best Cities to Raise an Outdoor Kid”
  • “Best Places to Live- The 30 Coolest Neighborhoods in America”
  • #2 “Top Ten Best Midsize Metropolitan Areas”
  • #20 “Best Places for Business and Careers”
  • #4 “Eleven Most Bicycle Friendly Cities in the World”
  • #1 “Most Educated City in America”
  • #6 “Top 10 Healthiest Cities to Live and Retire”
  • #6 “Cities with the Highest Ratio of Artists in the Country”
  • #2 “Cities With a High Percentage of Workers Employed in High-Tech Work”
  • #1 “Top Heart Friendly Cities” (under 560,00 pop)
  • #3 “Top 10 Cities for Masters Runners”
  • “Top 10 World’s Greener Cities”
  • #5 “Best Green Places to Live in America”
  • #1 “Smartest Cities in America”
  • #1 “Top Small-City College Destination”
  • #6 “Top 10 Farmer’s Markets”
  • #5 “Best Cities for Empty-Nester”
  • #7 “Best Sports City”
  • #8 “Top 10 Cities for Artists”
  • #1 “Best Cities For Singles”
  • #3 “50 Best places to live”

Yes, Doug. Lexington should in no way aspire to be one of the healthiest, smartest, greenest, artiest, happiest, coolest cities in the country, known for being among the best places to go to live, vacation, eat, love, bike, retire, find a high-tech job, and go to school.

It’s true that Boulder is also not in a desert like us here in Lexington, but these other hideous traits of Boulder must be avoided at all costs.

Frack off, Boulder!

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An even closer look at Lexington election results by council district (i.e., This is Gray Country)

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November 16, 2010
By Joe Sonka

We’ve done two posts in the past 5 days looking at the election results by precinct in Lexington. Last Friday, we looked at Jim Gray’s incredible rise after the primary, as he was able to dominate not just on the north side, but south of New Circle Road, as well. Yesterday, we found that Jim Gray dominated precincts that voted for either Jack Conway or Ben Chandler, and only narrowly lost precincts that went for both Rand Paul and Andy Barr.

Today, we’re going to look at the results from two weeks ago by each council district in Lexington. We’ll look at Gray’s triumph in what was thought to be hostile territory, as well as look forward to 2012 council races.

The first 4 districts that we’ll look at are the ones that are home to Jim Gray’s biggest adversaries on the council: the 6th (Kevin Stinnett), the 10th (Doug Martin), the 9th (Jay McChord), and the 12th (Ed Lane).

Here are the results, for the 6th District in the races for Mayor, Senate and House:

Gray- 50.4%
Newberry- 49.6%

Conway- 49%
Paul- 51%

Chandler- 51%
Barr- 49%

This one initially looks like a real shocker. Jim Gray beat Newberry on the home turf of one his most conservative adversaries? Yes he did, and that’s remarkable. But even in a terribly down year for Democrats, this district was basically split even on the federal races, as this diverse and widely spread district stretches from African-American neighborhoods in the north to Hamburg gated communities in the southeast. The real question I have when looking at this district is how has someone as conservative as Kevin Stinnett represented this district virtually unopposed since 2004? Considering Jim Gray’s performance in this district, one would think that a more moderate/progressive candidate could finally give him a real run for his money in 2012. Then again, if Kevin Stinnett sees these numbers and moderates himself a bit over the next two years, he may wind up cutting that challenge off at the pass.

Here are the results in the 10th District, home of the Southside Screamer:

Gray- 52%
Newberry- 48%

Conway- 45%
Paul- 55%

Chandler- 48%
Barr- 52%

Jim Gray went into this conservative district of one of his adversaries where both Conway and Chandler lost… and won by 4 points. This is incredible stuff. Looking ahead to 2012, I think it’s safe to say that Doug Martin will have to look over his shoulder for a candidate that turns out to be better financed or more viable than Kevin Williams turned out to be. Sandy Shafer’s late entry into the race drew an amazing 9% of the vote, far more than I would have thought a write-in candidate could garner in a council race. If Shafer’s health continues to improve, one would think that she would be an odds on favorite to take back her seat that she held for many years. Or, there could be a viable moderate Republican in the vein of Linda Gorton or KC Crosbie that could take on Doug Martin in this district. One things for sure… this Gray Country, as Gray had 600 more votes than Martin in this district.

Here are the results from the 9th District:

Gray- 49%
Newberry- 51%

Conway- 40%
Paul- 60%

Chandler- 43%
Barr- 57%

This is one of the two most conservative districts in Lexington, home to perhaps Gray’s biggest adversary on the council and blowout losses for Conway and Chandler… yet Jim Gray almost pulls even with Newberry. This is another jaw-dropper.

McChord won by 6% in 2006, and has been unopposed the last two years. McChord would be a tough candidate to beat, but the viable moderate Republican avenue could be a winner. Or, previously term-limited and currently-awesome Jennifer Mossotti could come back and take her old seat. (and in my opinion, she would have Alice Forgy Kerr’s seat right now if the KDP hadn’t chosen Don Blevins to run over her).

Here are the results in the 12th District:

Gray- 47%
Newberry- 53%

Conway- 38%
Paul- 62%

Chandler- 40%
Barr- 60%

Easily the most conservative district Lexington, the home of Newberry’s biggest ally on the council… and Jim Gray only loses by 6 points and manages to steal away 12 precincts from Newberry. Remarkable stuff.

The results from these 4 council districts show that Jim Gray was able to go into what could have been hostile conservative territory and not only compete, but in the case of the 6th and 10th, win. I’m not sure what message Stinnett, Martin, McChord and Lane take from this, but they’d be rather dim to ignore it.

*****

Alright, now for the rest of Lexington’s council districts, starting with the most conservative and going to the most liberal.

7th District (KC Crosbie):

Gray- 51%
Newberry- 49%

Conway- 48%
Paul- 52%

Chandler- 50%
Barr- 50%
(Barr won by 20 votes)

Another conservative-ish district that Paul and Barr won… another district that Jim Gray won anyway. I’m sure a good deal of this victory is due to help that both Scott and KC Crosbie provided in the district. Crosbie won her election easily, and it’s doubtful that she’s going to be flanked anytime soon from the right, as the close federal races show that this district isn’t exactly right-wing.

5th District (now Bill Farmer Jr.’s):

Gray- 56%
Newberry- 44%

Conway- 52%
Paul- 48%

Chandler- 51%
Barr- 49%

Here’s a slightly Democrat-leaning district… and Gray just cold blows out Newberry. Bill Farmer is a Republican and kind of a loose canon, but I assume that he won’t be too adversarial with Mayor Gray. At least he won’t be if he looks at his constituents.

4th District (Julian Beard)

Gray- 56%
Newberry- 44%

Conway- 52%
Paul- 48%

Chandler- 54%
Barr- 46%

Again, the 4th leans Democrat, but Gray wins in a blowout. Beard will likely sit here safely as long as he wants, because no one eff’s with Julian.

8th District (George Myers)

Gray- 55%
Newberry- 45%

Conway- 54%
Paul- 46%

Chandler- 56%
Barr- 44%

A solidly Democratic district that went solidly for Gray. No alarms and no surprises. As for 2012, I’m sure Ed Lane would like nothing more than to find a challenger to run against Myers, but anyone acceptable to Lane would not be acceptable to this not-conservative district.

11th District (Peggy Henson)

Gray- 56%
Newberry- 44%

Conway- 57%
Paul- 43%

Chandler- 59%
Barr- 41%

No alarms and no surprises. As we get into more heavily Democratic districts like this one, we begin to see Gray’s margin dip lower than Conway and Chandler, as some Democrats obviously go towards Newberry, though certainly not most.

2nd District (Tom Blues)

Gray- 55%
Newberry- 45%

Conway- 66%
Paul- 34%

Chandler- 67%
Barr- 33%

Those observing closely noted that Blues started to cozy up to Newberry in 2010. Time to start cozying of to Gray, me thinks.

3rd District (Diane Lawless)

Gray- 68%
Newberry- 32%

Conway- 69%
Paul- 31%

Chandler- 70%
Barr- 30%

This was easily Jim Gray’s best district, as the heart of Lexington’s downtown helped him double up Newberry. A source tells me that when Diane Lawless was asked how she feels about working with Gray instead of Newberry next year that she proceeded to do the cabbage patch. Developing…

1st District (now Chris Ford)

Gray- 67%
Newberry- 33%

Conway- 78%
Paul- 22%

Chandler- 79%
Barr- 21%

Shocking that Lexington’s African-American community forcefully rejected the guy against the Civil Rights Act and the guy at the all-white country club. Shocking. Chris Ford is kind of a mystery, we’ll see what we get out of him soon, I guess.

*****

So there’s our 3rd edition of Fun With Lexington Election Results and Numbers. Until next time…

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Lexington’s city government is looking… pretty good

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November 4, 2010
By Joe Sonka

Lexington not only has a wonderful new mayor, but check out how good the new council looks.

If things went the wrong way Tuesday night, Lexington could have had 4 years of Newberry as mayor and Chuck Ellinger as vice mayor. *shudder*

Instead, we have Jim Gray as mayor and Linda Gorton as vice mayor (who should be great). Also, Bill Farmer Jr. replaces Cheryl Feigel in the 5th. Farmer is a bit of a wild card, but I’m pretty confident that he’ll be an improvement. Meanwhile KC Crosbie held onto her seat easily, and from all indications Chris Ford should be good in his first term in the 1st (though he’s got big shoes to fill following Andrea James). And Steve Kay on the council helps fill the void of Gray.

This means that all of a sudden the 4-person cabal of Ed Lane, Jay McChord, Kevin Stinnett and Doug Martin is looking mighty, mighty small and insignificant. Look forward to lots of impotent rage from these folks over the next 2 years, while Diane Lawless & Co. sit back and chuckle at their political misfortune.

The Southside Screamer may have won, but at least we’ll have lots of temper tantrums and pouting to look forward to…

…and that LFUCG city council that’s looking pretttty prettty pretty good.

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Doug Martin: lazy, pampered clown of the people

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November 1, 2010
By Joe Sonka

If you live in the 10th District of Lexington, you may have seen something eerily similar to this in your neighborhood over the last 7 months:

Yes, appointed councilman Doug Martin doesn’t “walk” his district to ask for votes. Oh no. He rides his scooter.

From house to house.

I’m sorry to wait so long to share this news with you, but I’ve really been hoping to get this on video, and thought that letting the cat out of the bag might ruin my chances of that. But yes, I’ve had more tips from people in the 10th telling me about a scooter clown going door-to-door asking for votes than anything else since April.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: why would Doug Martin take a scooter from door to door, house to house, instead of just walking his district? Wouldn’t that make voters think he was some lazy, pampered buffoon?

Well, the initial reason was at least somewhat reasonable. Dougie turned his ankle sometime in March/early April (apparently when walking to his first house), and used this as his excuse during the primary. Fair enough. Maybe.

But Doug Martin continues to canvass from house to house on his little scooter TO THIS DAY. He turned his ankle 7 months ago, and he still uses his ankle as an an excuse.

This wonderful news can only mean one thing: Doug Martin is truly the Clown of the People.

You never cease to entertain us….

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VOTE! May 22

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