House Republican runs to unseat Republican incumbent in Kenai Peninsula Senate race

The Senate chambers are seen at the Alaska State Capitol on Friday, May 13, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Republican Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, is not seeking reelection for a fourth term in the House. Instead, he is running against incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, for the Senate seat in the same region.

In the primary, Bjorkman had a 4-percentage-point advantage over Carpenter, 44.3% to 40.3%. A third candidate, Democrat Tina Wegener of Sterling, received 12.8% while Alaska Independence Party candidate Andy Cizek received 2.6% and dropped out of the race.

Whereas Bjorkman caucused with the bipartisan Senate majority in the last legislative session, Carpenter was among the more conservative members of the House majority caucus.

Bjorkman, 40, is originally from Michigan and has lived in Alaska for 15 years, where he has worked as a teacher and fisher. He previously served two terms on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly.

Carpenter, 49, is from Washington state and has lived in Alaska for 34 years, where he owns and operates a commercial peony farm with his wife. He served with the U.S. Air Force for 13 years and was a member of the Air Force Reserves and the Army National Guard in Utah and Alaska. He has served three terms in the Alaska House of Representatives since 2019.

Wegener has a history of supporting Republican candidates, and Bjorkman and some local Democrats have said her candidacy is intended to draw support away from Bjorkman. The Alaska Democratic Party is not supporting Wegener’s campaign. She did not respond to requests from the Alaska Beacon for comment.

Legislative histories

In the last legislative session, two Bjorkman-sponsored bills became law — one bill that is aimed at reducing the cost of lumber produced by Alaska sawmills and another that forbids taxation on real estate transfers. He also supported bills for the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee that became laws to increase benefits paid to injured fishers and ease drug testing requirements for employers through the use of saliva tests.

Some of his policy proposals also made their way into law as part of other legislation, including a proposal to give tax breaks to food producing farmers and to give pay increases to teachers who achieve National Board Certification.

Carpenter proposed bills that would lower the state’s corporate income tax, aim to take the Permanent Fund dividend out of the appropriation process by returning to a statutory transfer process, implement a 2% sales tax as part of a broader economic plan, increase parental control over their children’s education and increase state benefits for teachers, police officers and firefighters. In his six years in the House, none of the bills he sponsored has become law, though it’s not clear how many of his proposals were incorporated into other bills.

Ideas for affordable energy

While Bjorkman said he favors an “all of the above” approach to get reliable and affordable energy to his constituents, Carpenter has disparaged the ideas of importing liquified natural gas or developing renewable energy on his campaign website.

“I’ve opposed efforts to put state money towards replacing reliable firm-energy production with unreliable and costly renewable energy projects,” Carpenter’s campaign website says. Carpenter declined an interview with the Alaska Beacon.

Bjorkman said his priority is local production, but he is open to an “all of the above” approach to keep things affordable.

“The people who produce gas are telling us that they cannot deliver the gas that South Central needs. If we can’t do that, then we need to prioritize building a pipeline, a natural gas pipeline, from the North Slope, so that we can get Alaska’s natural gas resources heating Alaska’s homes and businesses. That’s what we need to do if we cannot produce it locally,” he said.

He said he supports reducing the base royalty rate in Cook Inlet to encourage local production.

Differences on education

The candidates both voted last session to approve a major, bipartisan education bill that would have permanently raised the state’s per pupil funding formula. But after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the proposal, Bjorkman voted to override the veto and Carpenter voted to accept it. The attempt to override the veto failed by one vote.

Lawmakers passed a one-time funding increase for districts instead, which Bjorkman criticized as an inefficient way to spend state money because it does not cure the year-to-year financial uncertainty districts face.

Carpenter is a proponent of increasing parent authority and involvement in education and points in his campaign materials to the state’s charter schools as a model of educational success that should be replicated. He introduced a bill that included a “Parents and Teachers Bill of Rights,” which did not make it to the House floor for a vote.

“Teachers will be better supported when parents have responsibility for the outcomes of our schools,” he wrote in his campaign filings.

Another marked difference between the candidates is that Carpenter opposes a return to a state pension, also known as a defined benefit, for public employees — “I’ve opposed all attempts to return to an unaffordable defined benefit retirement system for public sector unions that would add billions of dollars to our unfunded liabilities,” his campaign site reads.

Bjorkman has expressed that he is open to a pension for state employees — among other options to increase retention — but stipulates that the state must find cost-neutral or cost-saving solutions.

“Alaska is one of the only states in the US that offers no access to Social Security and no defined benefit option for some of its employees,” he wrote in answer to a questionnaire for the Alaska Beacon. “This must change if Alaska is serious about keeping troopers in our communities, teachers in classrooms, and our roads well plowed.”

Where they stand on ballot measures

Bjorkman said he will oppose Ballot Measure 1, which would increase the state’s minimum wage and require employers to offer sick leave. He plans to vote for Ballot Measure 2, a repeal of the ranked choice voting system, but said he has some concerns that it will deny people who are not registered with a political party a chance to vote in primary elections.

“I support Ballot Measure 2, but it’s a cautionary one, because it’s not the system that was in place before. It is another new system that is going to confuse and frustrate voters,” he said.

Carpenter’s campaign materials list the repeal of ranked choice voting among his priorities.