Students, professor seek grant to reform Kentucky politics
January 23, 2016
Four UK honors students and a professor are on a mission to win a Knight Foundation grant and improve the city of Lexington.
Knight Foundation selected the group as one of 126 finalists across the nation, including four others from Lexington, out of a total of about 7,000 submissions. The team’s proposal, called “Fancy Lex,” is designed to follow-up Fancy Farm, an event often regarded as the starting post of Kentucky’s political season.
The budget for the project is about $120,000, which goes towards advertising the event, paying for the venue and giving $5,000 to each of the cities 12 districts, who will set up their own area for discussion with constituents.
Economics sophomore Clay Thornton said the idea came to him because he found that politicians at Fancy Farm were not providing real solutions, and that in order to foster growth the public needed a better platform for problem solving.
“Fancy Farm is more traditional, more one-line campaign thinkers that really don’t provide any solutions,” Thornton said. “‘Fancy Lex’ would be a way to put Lexington at the next stage of the political conversation and more importantly to reform politics.’”
The group formed the concept with associate professor Buck Ryan, director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center’s Citizen Kentucky Project, in their Citizen Kentucky Honors class after watching his 2014 documentary “Ballot Bomb: Exploring the Young Voter Explosion.”
The honors class studied civic engagement, and trends among younger generations, whose low levels of participation in politics the “Fancy Lex” group hoped to challenge.
In an op-ed to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Abby Shelton, a member of the “Fancy Lex” team last year, solicited other millennials to get involved, whether they have interest in politics or not. One of the reasons behind the proposal, she said, was because many local residents know little to nothing about local government or who their representatives are.
“For those turned on by politics, Fancy Lex would offer a chance for young voters to come to a big city celebration and get to know their mayor, council members and other public officials,” Shelton said. “For those turned off by politics, it offers an alternative: a chance to come to the same party and build new constructive relationships with government officials to solve the city’s problems.”
Thornton compared the proposed plan to a Thursday Night Live or Night Market atmosphere, with music, representation from local businesses and a pavilion for each of the 12 districts where the public can discuss issues with their elected representatives.
“The big difference for young people is that they don’t know the proper or traditional way to go about making solutions and so “Fancy Lex” would be connecting young people with their elected leaders,” Thornton said. “Fancy Farm only engages those who are already involved in politics.”
This year’s group also consists of theater and communications freshman Emilia Bustle, community and leadership development freshman Molly Thompson, biology and psychology junior Torie Osborne, and journalism sophomore Blair Johnson.
The groups Facebook page provides updates on the project and can be viewed at: