For a quick glance, A "green check" is good; a "red X" is not.

The Accountability Caucus report cards on Kawasaki had a score of 8 with a grade of F. Kelly was only slightly higher with a score of 15 and grade of F1. What this means is neither candidate should have been re-elected. Unfortunately, these were the only choices voters had in the general election. Neither candidate had an opponent in the primaries.

We now know that Kawasaki won. In the long run this is good for Alaska. Though they were both similar, one was in leadership and the other was not. Kelly, the one in leadership, is no longer capable of inflicting further damage. His leadership and voting record was likely a major component to his loss. Kawasaki will be in the minority caucus and incapable of doing the same damage making him less of a threat. This will put greater pressure on the majority caucus to do a better job of cooperating with those who are fiscally responsible.

Below is a summarized break down of the categories legislators were held to account. Discussed will be the differences between Kelly and Kawasaki based solely on their voting records which is what is of most importance. One can tell a lot about their legislators based on how they vote and as a voter, determine if they want that individual and their positive or negative leadership back in office.

• Fiscally Responsible: Neither are fiscally responsible. Kelly consistently voted for unsustainable budgets and was the Senate's finance leadership and Senate President making him highly accountable for the overspending. Kawasaki was a member of the House finance committees in the 29th and 30th Legislature and often times voted for unsustainable budgets also. He was responsible enough to NOT vote for the $1 billion bond package and Kelly did.

• PFD: When it comes to protecting the PFD they both failed. The main difference here is Kawasaki was unpredictable and Kelly was not. Kawasaki is credited for stopping SB128 (2016) in House Finance, the bill that would have permanently cut and cap the PFD. Unfortunately he voted for bills later on that cut the PFD and implemented an income tax. Kelly on the other hand was consistent in taking the PFD and a NO on income taxes.

• Oil & Gas Cash Credits: Kawasaki got this one right unlike most. He consistently knew this was a bad program for Alaskans and voted the correct way each time to stop the program and NOT penalize Alaskans further with the $1 billion bond package. Kelly took the soft approach and in the end voted for the bond package.

• Crime: Both voted for SB91 however Kawasaki voted to repeal it. Not Kelly.

• Privacy: Early on they both voted to NOT support the REAL ID. Kelly softened up overtime but Kawasaki stood his ground. Good job. The big problem is they both don't realize that the collection of data is also a violation of privacy which they seem to support in the drug databases and now the longitudinal databases collecting data from public school to the work force. This is an important element of the Common Core Initiative, which is bad, and is being implemented in a stealth fashion a piece at a time. All this is a violation of privacy they both took an oath to protect. Both failed.

• Property: Neither understood this one and therefore failed at every opportunity. This shows the voters that when it comes to increasing state power over your private property, you lose.

• Life: Kelly's on the right track but does not understand that the passing of budgets, thus far, also pays for abortions which is something no Alaska should be mandated to do. Kawasaki pretty much supports all aspects of abortion, funding planned parenthood, fetal tissue sales and yes, mandating Alaskans pay for it. He also voted to censure the guy that brought mandatory publicly funded abortions to everyone's attention.

• Education: I think they both vote along to get along in this department and both failed. Kawasaki actually voted to discriminate against independent homeschoolers. Not good.

• Responsible Governance: I'm not sure either knows what that means. Kawasaki is consistently for a bigger and more expensive government, hands down. Kelly is pretty much the same with an exception of one vote. Therefore, when it comes to selecting leadership or being that leadership, they vote and lead accordingly and that is for bigger government.

 

Interesting take on the Fairbanks race between Kawasaki VS Kelly.

The positive outlook is, the Governor will set the agenda. January will be interesting to watch when they all go back to work.  Politadick