Meet the candidates: Jeff Shipley

[Editor’s note: The Southeast Iowa Union sent questionnaires to the local candidates running for seats in the Iowa Legislature that are up for election on Nov. 5. This is the questionnaire of Republican Jeff Shipley, who is running against Democrat Thomas O’Donnell to represent Iowa House District 87, which includes the southern half of Jefferson County including Fairfield, all of Van Buren County and the southwest corner of Henry County including Mt. Pleasant.]

1. What issue do you feel most knowledgeable about? What's something about that issue that the average person might not know?

Over the last several years, I've learned a lot about civil rights law and litigation. These are very powerful laws that affect many aspects of our lives, but many people, including lawyers and politicians, are not familiar with how they work. I started learning about this area of the law during Covid when people were losing their employment or otherwise suffering at their jobs or in places of public accommodation due to heavy-handed mandates.

2. Can you tell us about your sources of information? When you want to learn about a political issue, where do you go to learn about it?

I like to expose myself to as many perspectives and sources of information as possible. As an elected official, I have a fairly constant barrage of people sending me information they'd like for me to review. I have to be very vigilant with my attention and careful with what I assume is true.

When attempting to prove something either in the court of law or the court of public opinion, the most credible sources are from official government documents or statements from corporations pertaining to regulatory compliance. While articles published in scientific journals require additional scrutiny, they can also be helpful in parsing out data points or established statistics.

For instance, I can say with a great degree of confidence and authority that Vitamin D levels is the greatest predictor of covid severity, and provide references for this claim. In scientific literature, systemic reviews carry the most weight. Therefore, I can also confidently claim that Vitamin D also plays an important role in regulating mental health in both youth and adults.

https://chess.uchicago.edu/vitamind/

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/long-covid-treatment-does-your-vitamin-d-level-play-a-role

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7999324/

3. Are there any issues that you have changed your mind about? And if so, what caused you to change your mind?

Yes, I am almost always assessing and reassessing my views and positions on issues. In my first term, I voted against the expansion of legalized gambling after previously supporting it. I was moved by many passionate speeches on the issue during floor debate. More recently, I became an advocate for stricter enforcement and penalties for distracted driving as a result of constituents directing me on the issue.

4. Do you think your political party should compromise more with the other political party?

Yes, if people are advocating in good faith, then compromise is usually prudent to create the best and most harmonious outcome. However, offering compromise when someone is not acting in good faith, such as when the teachers' union lobbied to keep schools closed during covid, would be very ill-advised.

5. States often copy the policies in other states. Are there policies in other states that you wish Iowa would copy? Are there policies in Iowa that you see other states copying because of their success?

Yes, I am always trying to keep an eye on other states for policy ideas. This next legislative session we'll be looking at bills to prohibit geo-engineering that were passed in New Hampshire and Tennessee. We're also looking at California's recent effort to ban artificial food dyes in schools. Most importantly, we're looking at states with more competitive tax structures (no income tax) to see how something like that might work out for Iowa.

6. If you are elected or re-elected in November, what do you hope to accomplish in this next legislative session?

I hope to ensure the rights and liberties of all Iowans at all times and places. More specifically, I hope to clarify the law to make sure we're not overly relying on the judicial system to fill in the gaps and resolve conflicts that should have been resolved by the legislature. I think the area that needs the most clarity is how the legal construction of "gender identity" is being used to erase or supersede the rights of parents over their children, and the rights of women and girls to have sex-based accommodations and privacy.

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