A retired combat veteran turned small-town mayor is challenging Salem's establishment for an open Oregon House seat after a lawmaker literally laughed at his concerns about basic infrastructure — and the race is a straight referendum on whether green land-use rules or working families come first.
Republican Ken Jackola, the mayor of Lebanon, faces Democrat Ivan Maluski in House District 11, covering timber and agricultural communities across Linn and Marion counties. The seat opened when Rep. Jami Cate declined to seek reelection after losing a bid for the state Senate. Jackola says the state's environmental regulatory regime — particularly wetland mitigation requirements — is strangling rural development, and Salem doesn't care.
Jackola is a lifelong Lebanon resident, Army veteran, Oregon National Guard member, local business owner, and Oregon State agricultural science graduate elected mayor in 2022. His breaking point came in a meeting with an unnamed Salem lawmaker to discuss Lebanon development and infrastructure. The lawmaker laughed.
Jackola described the moment as proof that current lawmakers are "out of touch" with "true Oregon." He told the Statesman Journal: "I just want to bring benefit back to this district so they can actually provide the basic services to the people that live in these cities."
His top priorities: water and wastewater infrastructure that small towns can't afford to upgrade under current regulatory mandates, and revisiting land-use regulations — especially wetland mitigation rules inside urban growth boundaries. He said aging infrastructure and costly compliance requirements block smaller communities from adding housing and attracting businesses.
"I'm not advocating that we need to build on every ounce of acreage, but within our urban growth boundaries, cities need to be able to have that latitude to develop and grow and bring in industrial and commercial entities to improve the economic base of that community," Jackola said.
He also highlighted Second Amendment rights, opposing new taxes, and being "100% pro-life." He's been endorsed by Linn County officials, though the Statesman Journal cut off before listing them fully.
What the Statesman Journal buried: Maluski's platform. The outlet profiled Jackola's positions at length while offering readers essentially nothing on what the Democrat would do in office — including his stance on the very land-use and environmental policies at the center of this race. That omission matters. Voters deserve to know whether Maluski defends the wetland mitigation rules Jackola says are choking his district, or whether he'd reform them. The Statesman Journal didn't ask, or didn't print the answer.
The same squeeze hits working families nationwide. In Illinois' 36th House District, the Chicago Tribune reported that both candidates — incumbent Democrat Rick Ryan and Republican former police chief David Sheppard — at least agree property taxes are driving people from their homes. Both want assessment caps. But the Tribune noted the structural trap: Illinois property taxes cover 64% of school costs, and raising state funding enough to cut them would require a massive state tax increase. Homeowners lose either way.
In Oregon's District 11, the choice is clearer: the green regulatory status quo that blocks development and drains tax revenue, or a mayor who says Salem needs to stop laughing and start listening to the communities that feed and power the state.
Ballots go out October 14. The question is whether District 11's timber and farm towns still have the clout to make Salem hear them.
