OPINION: Tara Sweeney understands rural and urban Alaska — and will be a champion for Alaska business

As a lifelong real estate developer and a partner in a major shopping complex in Anchorage, I’ve worked with business owners and entrepreneurs my entire life, and I know what qualities they need to find success.

That brings me to Tara Sweeney, a leading candidate for Alaska’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. I know Tara well, and it is clear that she would be a strong advocate for Alaskan businesses.

To start, Tara understands the unique challenges that face small-business owners in Alaska. From managing remote locations with extreme weather conditions to the difficulty involved recruiting and retaining quality talent, Tara has done it all. She has real private sector experience, both as a business owner, and as a member of corporate leadership at Alaska’s largest privately owned company, Arctic Slope Regional Corp. She also helped grow Alaska’s economy as the founding chair of the Arctic Economic Council and as a board member of First National Bank Alaska.

This breadth of experience gives her an understanding of what it takes to start, grow and maintain strong operations in this state. We need someone with that experience in Congress. Tara knows the challenges business owners in Alaska face, and she knows what the federal government can do about them. In a lot of cases, that involves simply getting out of the way and letting Alaskan entrepreneurs do what they do best — find creative solutions to the problems we face every day. However, in the cases where the federal government can be a part of the solution — by ensuring Alaska’s land is not locked away from productive use, or by investing in the physical transportation networks like roads, bridges, and airports that we all rely on — Tara will know where to direct federal resources to have the largest impact on our state.

Tara is also uniquely qualified to accomplish this due to her history of bipartisan cooperation and support. Tara has served with both Democrats and Republicans and less than five years ago was confirmed unanimously by the Senate as assistant secretary of the interior for Native American affairs, a post she served in for three years.

Having worked with both sides of the aisle to accomplish her goals — which included the development of a National Tribal Broadband Strategy aimed at addressing the challenges of broadband deployment in the nation’s most remote regions — Tara won’t miss a beat in pushing for affordable internet access for Alaskans.

She is the rare Alaska leader able to understand rural and urban Alaska. She grew up in villages around the state and with her husband raised their kids in Anchorage. Tara is a Ted Stevens-style Republican who knows that Alaska must have a growing and diversifying economy to continue attracting talent and investment. It is only fitting that she and I serve together on the Ted Stevens Foundation Board, where I regularly see her passion to make the Last Frontier a better place.

While this House race may feature celebrity candidates and lots of media speculation, we have to take this election seriously. Business owners know that Alaska can only be as healthy as our businesses — without a strong private sector to drive growth and provide good-paying jobs, our state will struggle to maintain our population and quality of life.

The good news is that we are in a strong position to capitalize on the growth of the Arctic region, and Alaska’s emerging role as a new center of global trade and commerce passing through new waters. Tara Sweeney will be the champion that Alaska’s business community needs during this time, a commonsense candidate with the know-how and love for her home to get things done.

Alaska is not an easy place to do business, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. With the right leadership, we can set the stage for Alaskan entrepreneurs to succeed. I’m supporting Tara Sweeney for Congress, and I hope you’ll join me.

Hugh Ashlock was born and raised in Alaska. He is a partner in the Dimond Center and an active real estate developer. He lives in Anchorage with his wife Liz and their two daughters.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.