Ex-Sen. Begich launches consulting firm

Former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich (D) is launching his own consulting firm, adding to his list of new jobs following a defeat by Republican Dan Sullivan in November.

Northern Compass Group recently registered with Alaska’s Department of Commerce. The firm has a physical location in Alaska and a mailing address in Washington D.C., where Begich’s son still attends middle school.

He told The Alaska Dispatch News that many of the firm’s clients would be announced soon — and would be mostly organizations in the nonprofit sector — though he is already working for Grant Aviation, an airline in Alaska.

Ethics rules bar the former senator from lobbying for two years, but he said that he is more interested in business development and “helping these organizations get to their next level.”

“Some of my colleagues go into it, ‘Oh, we’re going to lobby and be of counsel,’ ” Begich told his hometown newspaper on Saturday. “What I’m interested in is giving strategic advice and business advice.”

Begich is also taking a job at the National Association of Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), becoming its vice president for policy and development. He will also serve as the president and CEO of the Foundation for Hospice and Homecare and as dean of NAHC’s Homecare University.

The Alaska Senate race was one of the toughest for Democrats in the 2014 midterms in November. Begich declined to address speculation that he would run for Senate again in 2016, when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) is up for reelection.