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Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Democrat Liles Taylor elected magistrate by 2.2 percent of vote, on strength of support in city precinct

Liles Taylor
By Christie Netherton
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Democrat Liles Taylor won the race for fiscal court magistrate over Republican Joseph Greathouse, his next-door neighbor in Northridge Estates, in Tuesday's election.

The results were close, with Taylor winning by 32 votes, 744 to 712 – a margin of 2.2 percentage points. Greathouse won the county precinct 312 to 233, while Taylor won the larger city precinct 461-367.

“That’s how people voted, and that’s all right with me,” Greathouse, 44, said shortly after the results were posted. “I’ve served for 16 years, and I’ve loved doing it, and I will continue to serve my hometown and Woodford County.” He is a farmer and an officer in the Woodford County Fair Association.

Taylor, 31, the political coordinator for the state AFL-CIO labor federation, attributed his win to his supporters who showed up at the polls, and to his campaigning.

“I knocked on over 550 doors multiple times in town, and I burned up a lot of shoe leather,” he said. “So I feel like that was a big impact on the race.”

Taylor also ran in a contested primary this spring, which may have given him a head start. One voter he saw in the spring was Brandon DeMoss, 33, a business analyst for the state, who said he voted for him because “He’s the only one who showed up at my door and talked to me.”

Joseph Greathouse
In interviews at the polls, voters generally said personal knowledge of the candidates, or affinity with them, drove their choices in the race.

Thad Kesters, 44, a registered Republican who works for a video production company, said he voted for Greathouse because “My in-laws are farmers, and he’s a farmer.” Geologist Ray Daniel, 63, a registered Democrat, said he chose Greathouse because “I’ve known him and his family along time, and I trust the man.”

Taylor said before the election that some of his major concerns on Fiscal Court will be working on the Weisenberger Mill Bridge replacement (a state project) and flooding on Williams Lane, as well as addressing traffic issues in downtown Versailles in ways that do not increase traffic on Midway Road, US 62.

He said other priorities will be maintaining an economy that preserves the county’s roots in its agricultural community, improving Midway’s relationship with the rest of the county, and increasing transparency and accessibility of county government by live-streaming Fiscal Court meetings and creating an online portal for citizens to report and track road problems and repairs.

Taylor will succeed Linda Popp, whom he defeated in the May primary. “I think that a lot of folks are really excited about what we’re going to do to move forward in the community,” Taylor said.

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