Bjorkman, Carpenter meet for debate hosted by local Republicans

At the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex on Monday, the two Republican candidates for Alaska Senate Seat D met for a debate hosted by the District 8 Alaska Republican Party.

More than 100 people turned out to hear incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman and challenger Rep. Ben Carpenter, both Republicans from Nikiski, talk policy ahead of next week’s primary election. The event was organized by Robert Wall, who is one of Carpenter’s two largest donors according to campaign disclosures filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

Questions were submitted by district chairs, moderator Merrill Sikorski said.

Bjorkman introduced himself as “a husband, a dad and a follower of God.” He said that his goal in the Legislature is to represent the people of his district and their interests. That’s why, he said, he’s been able to identify issues from the community and see legislation passed in response. Legislators, he said, are responsible for doing the work of the voters and constituents and to prevent “bad legislation” from advancing.

“I believe in limited government and maximum freedom,” he said. “I think that our state government should focus on constitutionally mandated issues — roads, schools, strong public safety — and that’s my focus.”

Carpenter described himself as a small business owner and a long-time Nikiski resident. Alaska, he said, is a “center-right state” inhabited by center-right people.

“While we get some small bills done every single Legislature — our roads get funded, our school services get funded, our police services get funded — we’re not headed in the right direction fiscally,” he said. “We need to make some changes if we’re going to do that.”

The two candidates talked energy, education, elections, defined benefits and the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend.

Both called for reducing royalty rates for Cook Inlet producers to drive production. They also voiced support for a proposed LNG pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to Nikiski.

Carpenter said the idea of importing liquefied natural gas is “silly,” also that windmills and solar panels aren’t reliable. He said Alaska’s economy is “fundamentally tied” to low cost and reliable energy like natural gas, coal and hydro.

Bjorkman said the market has to drive energy in the state, that it will lead to “the lowest cost power” to light switches, gas stoves and boilers.

The candidates both said they supported opportunity for parents to choose the education their children receive. Carpenter said he wants “parents involved in the classroom,” and defended his choice not to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of an education package earlier this year that lacked the governor’s priorities for charter schools and homeschools.

“Parents are speaking loudly and clearly,” Carpenter said. “They’re leaving our education system because it is failing them.”

Both said they want to “clean up our voter rolls” and repeal ranked choice voting.

The two disagreed with how best to improve the state’s compensation package for public employees and fill vacant positions.

Bjorkman said that economists say a defined benefit retirement plan will cost the state less money, and that offering raises instead of a quality retirement costs more money.

“We’ve tried to solve a vacancy problem with state troopers by increasing salaries over and over,” he said. “We have more vacancies now than we did three years ago. That’s money out the door. Our compensation package for troopers is not competitive because other places offer them a defined benefit option retirement.”

Carpenter said he’s “flat out” opposed to a defined benefit system. He said that instead he would prefer an increase to the state’s employer contributions in the system that exists now. He said he worries that if investments fail under a defined benefit plan, taxes will be used later to make up the difference.

“If we need protection, then we pay for it — today’s dollars on today’s employees,” he said. “Don’t burden our future generations with additional taxes to pay for things that we wanted.”

Both said they’d like to see the permanent fund dividend protected. Carpenter says he wants to see that done via a constitutional amendment; Bjorkman said the solution is curtailing government spending.

A livestream of the full debate is available from Carpenter’s campaign on Facebook, at “Ben Carpenter for Alaska Senate District D.”

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.