Anthany Beatty (Photo From University of Kentucky's Website)
Lexington, KY - Former Lexington police chief Anthany Beatty Sr. has announced that he will throw his hat in the ring in Lexington’s mayoral race.
Beatty issued a media release, stating that he would submit the required documents for his candidacy at the Fayette County Clerk’s office at 12:15 p.m., with an announcement by Beatty scheduled for shortly afterward. Jim Gray’s campaign announced that he will officially file for re-election today at 1:30 p.m.
“In order for Lexington to reach its highest mark, every Lexington citizen must have a voice, and everyone must be willing to hear the opinions and input of all who may be impacted by the decisions we make as a city,” Beatty said in the media release announcing his candidacy. “Together we must take in information, digest data, and think analytically to arrive at the best outcomes, which will serve to propel us forward. Lexington has the people and places that can and will allow us to progressively and productively plan for many decades to come, but we can only be successful with extraordinary leadership. I am that leadership and want to be your candidate of choice.”
Beatty, 62, who retired as Lexington’s chief of police in 2008, currently serves as vice president of campus services and public safety at the University of Kentucky. The native Lexingtonian is a graduate of Henry Clay High School, Eastern Kentucky University and Kentucky State University.
The last two Lexington mayors have been unseated after just one term. Mayor Teresa Isaac lost by 26 percentage points to Jim Newberry - at that time a political newcomer - in the 2006 election and Newberry fell to defeat in 2010 by six points to Gray who had served the previous four years as Vice Mayor on council and had unsuccessfully sought the office of mayor in 2002 falling in the primary to Isaac and Scott Crosbie.
Before his retirement from the Lexington Division of Police, Beatty had been tapped to become the city's public safety commissioner by Newberry, but was forced to turn down the job due to the city's nepotism rules. Beatty's son served as a Lexington firefighter, a job he would have had to leave in order for the elder Beatty to oversee police, fire and other aspects of public safety in Fayette County.