By Patricia Farris News Review Publisher– City Clerk Ricca Charlon informed The News Review on October 15 that there is an additional candidate running for mayor. She stated that John “JD” Zipp has turned in nomination paperwork and had been verified by the Kern County Elections Office as a write-in candidate for mayor. In a response to The News Review’s request for a statement as to why he was running for office, we received the following:
“I grew up in the hills of S.E. Pennsylvania not more than three and half hours from Washington D.C.
I was about ten years old when I stood before some three hundred thousand tombstones in Arlington, VA and wept. It was then I made a promise, ‘When I die, my life will not say that you died in vain.’
I’ve waited all my life to keep that promise.
A year ago it was spoken over me (in short) God was preparing me for a place where I might feel uncomfortable because it is a place of honor and I would be used mightily. That conformation occured weeks ago when good friends asked, ‘So JD, what do you think about running for mayor?’
I’m a humble man with unshakeable faith.
My life is a series of testimonies, each one building in me a stronger faith than the last.
COVID taught us that things weren’t what we believed them to be. People took a stand and the whole thing has been swept under a rug.
No one knows the future of Ridgecrest but God. The earthquakes confirmed that we are isolated and vulnerable. Self-sustainability and benevolence towards one another is our future.
I’m running to keep a sincere promise, be obedient to God’s call and be a servant of Ridgecrest as your mayor.”
Reportedly Zipp has lived in Ridgecrest for 30 years. He is married and works as a mechanical design technician at China Lake.
