OPINION: A mayor needs to know how to listen and lead

Politics is a process of trial by fire, and rightly so, but sometimes those fires can also burn a city to the ground.

Many candidates simply distinguish themselves by the size of the bombs they throw at their opponents.

How about actual accomplishments, actual articulated ideas, actual candidate character?

That is why I support Chris Tuck for mayor of Anchorage.

The current mayor, Dave Bronson, and the former chair of the Anchorage Assembly, Suzanne LaFrance, have been engaged in violent, caustic warfare against each other. It is poisoning the entire city. Their fights have resulted in lawsuits with huge financial costs — costs not to them, but to our city. The city charter has been ignored, the law has been ignored, the public itself has been ignored.

It has made many of us say — hey, these guys are both the problem and, you know, we really don’t have to vote for either one of them.

Anchorage has been named an All-American City four times. That’s a huge accomplishment for the small number of cities who have achieved that distinction. Unfortunately, Bronson and LaFrance have put Anchorage in the running for the most embarrassing city in America – $160 million wasted on failed homelessness initiatives, unsafe neighborhoods, an inability to handle our signature challenge - snow management, and endless finger pointing about who is to blame.

Anchorage is now just days away from a consequential election.

Here’s an idea: Cross Bronson and LaFrance off your list. Neither Dave Bronson nor Suzanne LaFrance should be Anchorage’s mayor. Period.

Chris Tuck has been a long time proud union member, but Tuck has also been a School Board member, a state legislator, and now has built a statewide small business with 14 employees. None of the other candidates for mayor have the real-world job experience and the legislative experience that Tuck does.

I worked for decades for many of Alaska’s greatest political leaders, from Assembly to U.S. Senate. Chris Tuck has all the attributes of a great leader. He is a compassionate person who genuinely likes people and listens with an open mind. He also knows when it is time to take information and make a decision — and then take responsibility for it.

Back in August, when Tuck began campaigning, 38 women wrote an op-ed detailing why they considered him to be the strongest candidate on issues that mattered to them. That speaks volumes about the kind of leader Tuck has become over his years of community involvement and public service. Democratic and Republican leaders in the state have similarly written about Tuck’s willingness, and ability, to work across the aisle to get solutions to the critical issues of economic development, education and public safety. Someone who engenders that kind of broad support is exactly what Anchorage needs.

The politics of my-way-or-the-highway has never delivered results to the population at large. The real people who make up Anchorage’s workforce, put their children through Anchorage schools, and who expect those children to be able to play in safe neighborhoods want hard working, genuine political leaders who can get the job done.

Chris Tuck is the one candidate in this April 2 election who has a proven record of doing just that. He is far and away the best of our choices to be Anchorage’s next mayor.

Art Hackney was born in Anchorage in 1951. His late father was a state legislator for many years, and Art has managed political and corporate public messaging for candidates and issues for more than 40 years.

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