Democratic Fairbanks Sen. Scott Kawasaki violated ethics law by holding constituent events too close to the 2024 state primary, a panel of the Alaska Legislature concluded in a report published Friday.
The report was published by the Senate subcommittee of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Legislative Ethics, which recommended no penalty.
Under the Legislative Ethics Act, a legislator in a campaign cannot use state funds “to print or distribute a political mass mailing to individuals eligible to vote for the candidate” if the mailing takes place during a period that begins 60 days before the primary election and ends one day after the general election.
According to the report, Kawasaki e-mailed constituents a newsletter, distributed informational flyers and held a “Picnic in the Park” event to observe the opening of his office in Fairbanks.
Kawasaki, who defeated Republican Leslie Hajdukovich in the November general election, faced only Hajdukovich in the primary, making the race uncontested. In Alaska, the top four vote-getters advance from the primary election to the general election. Kawasaki and Hajdukovich were the only two registered candidates.
Kawasaki was first elected to the Alaska State House of Representatives in 2007, and to the Senate in 2019. He ran for re-election in 2024 to represent Senate District P.
Reached by phone on Friday, Kawasaki said that “it’s just sort of disappointing to have this be said and politicized, and then it becomes a potential issue in the future campaign.”
“It was a technical violation,” he said, “and I think it was unfairly weaponized against us just because of who we were running against.”