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…
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