The two front-runners in the race for the northern Kenai Peninsula’s seat in the Alaska Senate faced off Monday night during a debate hosted by a local Republican group. The nearly two-hour debate showed where incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman and challenger Ben Carpenter agree and disagree on issues ranging from energy, to education, to the economy.
More than 130 people packed into the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex on Monday to watch Bjorkman and Carpenter — both Republicans — make their case for why they would be the best choice for State Senator ahead of next week’s primary election.
Bjorkman and Carpenter are vying for the District D seat in the Alaska Senate. District D covers the northern half of the Kenai Peninsula, including Kenai, Soldotna, Nikiski, Cooper Landing, Moose Pass, Hope and Bear Creek.
During the debate Bjorkman presented himself as someone willing to work with others to pass bills and advance constituent priorities. Carpenter said he reflects Alaska’s center-right politics and wouldn’t compromise on principles with his opponents.
Bjorkman was elected to the State Senate in 2022 and has served since 2023. He chairs the Labor and Commerce Committee and also sits on Senate Education, State Affairs and Community and Regional Affairs.
“I'm a husband, a dad and follower of God, and I love the work that I get to do for all of you in the Alaska State Senate, my number one goal in being in the legislature is to represent you and your interests and interests that you care about,” he said.
Carpenter was elected to the State House in 2018 and has served since 2019. He chairs the House Ways and Means and Legislative Budget and Audit committees, and also sits on House Fisheries, Judiciary, State Affairs, Tribal Affairs and Military and Veterans Affairs committees.
“I've been in the House for six years,” Carpenter said. “In those six years, I've been representing District 8 … I've been representing it as a father and now as a grandfather. I grew up in Nikiski. Have lived there since I was a young kid. I served in the military for 20 years outside the state, and came back in 2013.”
The debate kicked off with a question about a looming shortage of natural gas in Cook Inlet. Both Bjorkman and Carpenter said Southcentral needs a pipeline from the North Slope to help move energy resources to the region. But they proposed different strategies for how state lawmakers should address energy shortfalls.
Bjorkman said lawmakers should have hired an oil and gas tax advisor to supply lawmakers with needed data last session. Carpenter said the holdup lies with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, who he says are stifling new development by trying to keep consumer prices low.
K-12 education is another issue where Bjorkman and Carpenter diverge. Both say they support school choice, but disagree about how to make those choices available.
Carpenter says parent involvement is crucial to take back schools from an education system he said is “overburdened by unions.” He pointed to an oft-cited study out of Harvard University that found Alaska’s charter schools are among the highest performing in the nation as a reason why parent groups should oversee traditional schools the same way they do charter schools.
“Whose school is over here in the neighborhood?” he asked. “Is it you, the parents? Or is it the school district school? If you want to change the results, then you have to change the ownership of the school and put parents in charge of those results.”
Bjorkman, whose background is as a public school teacher in Nikiski, said he supports school choice but the state shouldn’t be on the hook for paying for redundant education opportunities. He pushed back against Carpenter’s suggestion that parent and teacher groups oversee all schools, saying it’s a “recipe for leftists to take over our schools.”
“We need to make sure that we have educational choice and families have the ability to choose the education that they want for their kids, but we should not be duplicating service over and over in order to provide everyone with the flavor that they want, because nothing will blow our budget up faster than that,” he said.
The two also explained their votes on a comprehensive education package lawmakers passed last session. The bill, which was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, would have increased the base amount of money school districts get per student and created a new charter school coordinator position in the state, among other things. Lawmakers failed to override Dunleavy’s veto by one vote.
Bjorkman said he voted to override Dunleavy’s veto because it expanded school choice opportunities.
“I voted to override the governor's veto of education funding and more opportunities for home-school families and more opportunities for folks who want to start a charter school, because those things are important,” he said. “Did everyone get everything they wanted out of that bill, no, but it was a good place to start.”
Carpenter said he voted to sustain Dunleavy’s veto because the bill lacked accountability measures for schools.
“We're not going to increase the funding of education unless we get concrete mechanisms in place to improve the quality of our education,” he said. “That gets stymied every single year.”
Bjorkman and Carpenter put forward different ideas for addressing Alaska’s fiscal woes.
Carpenter outlined his vision for a long term fiscal plan for the state. It includes an amendment to the Alaska Constitution enshrining Alaskans’ right to an annual Permanent Fund Dividend payment, instituting a statewide sales tax and establishing a cap on state spending. He said he doesn’t support a statewide sales tax as a sole solution and is worried about the future of the fund.
“We’re setting up a system where all of our Permanent Fund earnings are going to pay for government and then you will have a government that is paid for entirely by the Permanent Fund and it will grow to the size of the Permanent Fund,” he said.
Bjorkman says he opposes all proposals for new taxes, which he said Alaskans can’t afford. He says taxes grow government with no guarantee on the programs those taxes intend to support. Bjorkman says the state should institute work requirements for residents who receive state aid.
“You can't tax your way into growing this state,” he said. “You can't tax your way into making government more responsible. I've never heard that take before — we need to tax more so that government cares more. Let that sink in. That doesn't make any sense.”
Another piece of the equation is whether Alaska should return to a defined contribution retirement plan for public employees, like teachers and law enforcement. Bjorkman and Carpenter agreed Alaska can be a more competitive employer, but have different opinions on the best way to do that.
Bjorkman said he supports looking at that proposal as one way Alaska could be more competitive for recruiting and retaining employees. He said a defined benefit plan would cost the state less money than it currently spends on things like hiring bonuses that don’t incentivize long-term employment.
“If you want to compete in the marketplace for employees, your compensation package has to be competitive,” he said. “Taking millions and millions of dollars more in salaries when you could be possibly saving money through a defined benefit option is something that we have to look at. Is it the perfect plan? I don't know. But what I can tell you is I'm willing to look at all of the options to save this state money.”
Carpenter opposes returning to a defined benefit plan, which he says has already cost the state more money and potentially shifts the financial burden to the state’s future taxpayers if it doesn’t work out. He thinks the state should focus on making the retirement system the state already has more competitive.
“Why in the world would we put the burden on our kids and our grandkids for paying for police officers that are protecting us now, if we need protection, then we pay for it now,” he said. “Today's dollars on today's employees. Don't burden our future generations with additional taxes to pay for things that we wanted. Now that is wrong, morally wrong.”
When it comes to getting things done in Juneau, the two also have different philosophies.
Bjorkman said he joined the binding Senate Majority Caucus to help give Republicans and his constituents more power in that chamber. Teamwork and compromise, he said, is necessary to get bills across the finish line.
“You have to be able to compromise to get things done,” he said. “If anyone tells you otherwise, that they're going to stick to their guns and no matter what they're going to get things done. That doesn't happen. It doesn't.”
Carpenter pushed back, saying binding caucuses, by design, exclude other lawmakers from helping make decisions.
“Binding caucuses are a poor leadership tool and a lazy man’s way of putting a team together,” he said.
On national issues, Bjorkman and Carpenter think the best thing Donald Trump could do to help Alaska if elected would be to open more of the state’s natural resources to development. They both oppose allowing trans girls and women to compete against cisgender girls and women in sport. They both believe in life at conception but also think the state needs to do a better job of taking care of children after they’re born, such as through foster care reform.
Absent from Monday’s debate was Independent candidate Andy Cizek and Democratic candidate Tina Wegener, who are also running in the District D race. Cizek said Monday he wasn’t invited to participate. After watching the debate from the audience, he stood outside the sports complex with one of his own campaign signs and waved to drivers.
The Alaska State Primary is next Tuesday, Aug. 20. The top four vote-getters in each race will advance to the November General Election.
