[1] Upon graduation from Puyallup High School in 1978,[2] he matriculated to Claremont Men's College and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley.
[1] Currently, Kastama is a part-time faculty member at the community college and university level where he teaches classes in Organizational Assessment, Strategic Planning, and Managing in a Political and Legislative Environment.
[1] Kastama is best known in state politics for utilizing a rarely used procedural motion called "the 9th Order" to join two Democrats in temporally shifting Senate control to the Republicans to pass a budget by a margin of one vote.
The maneuver earned Kastama tremendous animus from within his own party.
[3] His refusal to shift control back to the Democrats forced negotiations that eventually resulted in a bipartisan budget with 44-2 votes.