Election to decide district over campus
October 31, 2014
By Nick Gray
A political newcomer who earned a comfortable win in the May primary is pushing the veteran in the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council.
Challenger Jake Gibbs won the primary election with 55 percent of the vote, more than twice the percentage of votes that at-large councilmember Chuck Ellinger II got (27 percent) in the May primary.
The 3rd District, which contains the majority of downtown Lexington, including Rupp Arena and UK, was held by Diane Lawless for three four-year terms before she announced her intention to not seek a fourth term earlier this year.
Gibbs, a professor of history at Bluegrass Technical and Community College since 1988, earned his bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy at the State University of New York at Brockport before coming to UK to receive his master’s degree in history and library science, according to his campaign website.
Gibbs has been the ombudsman for the Bluegrass Community and Technical College since 2009 and has served on the board of directors in the Kentucky Association of Teachers of History since 2012. He has lived inside the 3rd District territory since 1978.
As a part of the Town and Gown Committee and UK’s Neighborhood Advisory Council, which works on communication between the university and surrounding neighborhoods, Gibbs will “work within existing lines of communication as well as broaden the dialogue with UK to ensure that UK understands the impact of their decisions on the wider community,” according to the website.
Ellinger, an attorney who graduated from the UK College of Law, was elected as a part of the Urban County Council in 2002 as an at-large member.
He is a part of the National League of Cities’ Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy Committee and the Kentucky and Fayette County Bar Associations.
Ellinger, who lost a 2008 election in the 13th District of the Kentucky Senate, currently serves as the chairman on the Budget and Finance Committee. In his time as chairman, the city used more than $75 million in public funding for the failed Rupp Arena renovation plans, which were scrapped by Mayor Jim Gray in May due to lack of cooperation by the state legislature and from UK. Gray asked the Urban County Council to take on $40 million in debt for the renovations for which the council did not follow through.
