Brown wins in second run for Nicholasville commission, others re-elected to office

Published 10:41 am Thursday, November 12, 2020

Two years ago, Bethany Davis Brown’s hopes for a seat on the Nicholasville City Commission came down to the luck of the draw.

This time, it wasn’t even close as she scored the third-most votes in the non-partisan race.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Brown said Tuesday. “The last election was such a nail-biter.”

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In 2018, Brown and Patty Grose Teater tied for the fourth seat on the commission with 3,756 votes each. After consulting with election officials in Frankfort, they were told local elections would be decided by lot. There is no local ordinance dealing with ties in elections.

Brown and Teater decided to draw a name from a hat to decide the winner, and Teater won the seat.

This year, both Teater and Brown won their seats comfortably, with Teater winning the most votes in the race at 5,477. The other two incumbents, Alex Carter and Betty Black, were also re-elected.

Brown will fill the seat being vacated by Doug Blackford, who chose not to run for another term.

“This time, it shows hard work and perseverance pays off,” Brown said.

Brown, a lifelong Jessamine County resident, said she wanted to represent a younger generation, along with the others.

“I’d seen there weren’t many young people running,” Brown said. “There’s a new generation in town that needs to stand up and work for the community.”

Brown was in third place at the end of election night, but Jessamine County Clerk Johnny Collier estimated there were about 100 absentee ballots that had not been returned. Any ballots postmarked Nov. 3 and received by 4 p.m. Nov. 6 were to be counted.

In the end, none of the election night winners changed. The other city race for the Wilmore City Council saw all six incumbents, Leonard Fitch, Andy Bathje, Kim Deyer, Jim Brumfeld, Jeff Baier and David Riel, re-elected to another term. Brett Gillespie was the seventh candidate, and lost his bid for the council.