Don't be fooled by what school board members Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss said in today's front page Statesman Journal story, "Salem-Keizer School Board election process considered discriminatory by some."
The story is about a proposal to have school board members elected by people who live in one of seven zones, rather than by everyone in the Salem-Keizer school district.
This would make school board elections similar to Salem City Council elections. The person running for office would have to live in the zone they are seeking to represent, and only residents of the zone could vote for that person.
Lippold, who is going by Jesse Lippold Peone now, favors that change to the election process. OK, good for him, as that change makes sense.
Not good is the hypocrisy shown by Lippold and another school board member, Kathy Goss. Here's quotes from the Statesman Journal story. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.
Lippold Peone said under this system, candidates would focus on campaigning to about 20,000-30,000 people from their own neighborhoods, instead of 200,000 across Salem and Keizer.
"You'd have better relationships with the schools in your area, with the parents in the area, because you can spend your time knocking on the doors of your neighbors and not on the doors of people most likely to vote off a list given by a political organization," he said.
...Member Goss argued in January that zone voting would create more special interest groups and go against the statewide directive for elected officials to work for the interests of the entire population they serve.
Wow. Hypocrisy on display.
Lippold says he doesn't want a political organization involved in campaign door-knocking. Goss says she's worried that zone voting would lead to the involvement of more special interest groups.
Yet in 2017 the school board election campaigns of Lippold and Goss were backed by Oregon Right to Life, a highly political special interest group.
Here's the evidence that I included in my April 2019 blog post, "Oregon Right to Life trying to take over Salem-Keizer school board."
That photo came from a July 2017 Oregon Right to Life blog post where this special interest anti-abortion, anti-Planned Parenthood organization celebrated the school board victories of Jesse Lippold and Kathy Goss (Marty Heyen already was on the board.)
Here's the rest of the Oregon Right to Life blog post. Keep it in mind when you've voting for Salem-Keizer school board members in the May 2021 special election. As before, I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.
Pro-life voices on school boards are important for several reasons. Not only do school board members affect education policy, they become community leaders with influence beyond their offices. Most importantly, their efforts keep Planned Parenthood away from our children.
On May 16, pro-lifers made a difference in several school board elections. Here are the highlights:
* In the past few years, the Salem-Keizer School District, Oregon’s second largest, allowed Planned Parenthood employees into children’s classrooms. The contract ended, but we’ve been concerned about it being reinstated. Apparently, voters were as well because they rejected a Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon board member who ran for school board. Instead, pro-life candidate Kathy Goss won this seat!
* Also in Salem-Keizer, 21-year-old pro-lifer Jesse Lippold beat a candidate with more experience.
* These victories were only possible due to the strong turnout of pro-life voters in both parties. In Salem-Keizer, pro-lifers returned close to one-third of all ballots, with over 20 percent of those coming from Democrats.
* Across Oregon, pro-life candidates were elected in other school districts. Several defeated incumbents, while others were reelected to continue their good work.
These victories prove that more are possible. Last year, Dennis Richardson shattered the myth that a staunch pro-lifer can’t win a statewide election in Oregon when he became Secretary of State. Pro-life victories in school board elections show the state that the pro-life vote matters on a local level.
The best way for you to help us expand on these victories is to identify pro-life school board members who need Oregon Right to Life PAC’s support and other members who need to be challenged. It’s never too early to prepare for future victories!
Thanks Brian for exposing the hypocrisy of Jesse Lippold who is running for reelection in May against another highly-qualified Latinx candidate, Karina Ortiz. Let's hope the voters make a better choice this time. Lippold is nothing but an Oregon Right to Life flunky, having taken 86% of his total campaign funding from them in 2017. And now he is worried about special interests. What a phony! He has also recently changed his registration from Republican to Non-Affiliated after having taken a junket to Mar-a-Lago last year where he posed for pictures with Donald Trump Jr. and other MAGA luminaries. He has no core beliefs or values and will shift with the wind to advance his political career. We need to end his career on May 18th.
Posted by: Jim Scheppke | March 08, 2021 at 08:29 AM
I actually got to know Jesse recently because we went to school together, and he’s not a bad guy. People just like to write bad reviews. People are allowed to evolve and grow. This pandemic especially has made toll for that, and people’s values have significantly shifted for the most part. So instead of ranting slander based on opinions without merit, allow people to show you for themselves what they can do. When you’re first starting out (like Jesse was) you’re going to want to accept help from anyone you can to help you get your foot in the door, because any help counts in the beginning. Especially if you’re not betting on nepotism or some other related means to launch a career. When an opportunity or a yes comes your way, you’d probably take it too. So please don’t bash on people without getting to know them as individuals versus just as public figures because the media can be deceiving. And you don’t want to be one of the people who trash others because in the end you’re the only one who looks bad.
Posted by: Alexa | May 06, 2021 at 08:06 PM
Lastly, Jesse is not a far right extremist. From my time getting to know him he was woke about social justice and diversity/equity/inclusion and he even offered support to some of his BIPOC classmates (in a predominantly white institution) which was nice to see. I will say I don’t know enough to say a whole lot about his personal political views or why he changed his affiliation. I will say he is very competitive but also charismatic and a good guy. This is coming from a Latinx person (myself). Have a good day.
Posted by: Alexa | May 06, 2021 at 08:12 PM