Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Kip Lipper

20. Kip Lipper

Lipper is a Capitol icon, representing to many the pinnacle of what a legislative aide can become in Sacramento. A staffer for 48 years, Lipper effectively serves as the gatekeeper for all legislation involving clean water, clean air, climate change, energy, etc. If you’re a lawmaker or a political interest who wants to run a bill on an environmental topic, your proposal has to be blessed by Lipper – Lipperized – or it’s simply not going to move forward. That’s just a fact of life in Sacramento. California is a blue state, the sun rises in the East and Kip Lipper has a major say in all environmental legislation that runs through the Capitol. As such, he is one of the few Capitol denizens to have found a home on this list every single year of its existence, never once landing outside of the Top 25. And deservedly so.

Updated August 7, 2024