Candidate Profile: Jake Spano

Editor's Note: Each day this week, St. Louis Park Patch will profile one of the five people competing for two seats on the City Council this year. Absentee voting in the 2011 city election begins Friday. A primary for one seat is Aug. 9, with the general election for both seats Nov. 8.

Jake Spano first got into politics after a chance encounter with a pretty influential leader.

Spano, who is one of three people running for the “at-large B” spot on the St. Louis Park City Council, was speaking to a friend several years ago about his desire to get into politics. Spano’s friend told him that he knew someone running for office that he had to meet. That’s when Spano met Amy Klobuchar, and shortly after that, he was an intern on her U.S. Senate campaign staff at age 35.

It didn’t take Spano long to move up the ranks, as he soon became an outreach coordinator for greater Minnesota—a job that made him “famous for long road trips”—and eventually the Senator’s deputy state director. The whole experience was a positive one for Spano.

“I realized I had a passion for politics, and public service,” he said.

The long hours of being in a Senator’s office started to wear on Spano, however, and he transitioned into public service at the city level. He currently works as the city of St. Paul’s marketing director.

Spano said he’s enjoyed working at the city level, noting that policy seems to have a much more tangible effect—such as getting roads plowed, or making sure ambulances arrive on time. Having lived in St. Louis Park for the last eight years, he said he’s now ready to bring his experience to the council.

“This is a role I thought about in the past, but it sort of came to me,” Spano said, adding that he got several calls urging him to run after Phil Finkelstein announced that he .

Spano said he will be running on a platform that focuses heavily on staying out in front of transportation issues, such as freight and light rail.

“It’s important that we get out in front of it and guide it,” he said. “If we don’t, it will run over us.”

The candidate said he wants to go away from an “all-or-nothing” rhetoric when it comes to the freight rail reroute issue, realizing that alienating other agencies might prevent light rail from coming at all—something he wants to avoid. Rather, he said he’d like to form relationships with all involved agencies and work on what’s acceptable for the community—and what’s not—together, something he did as president of the Brooklawn Neighborhood Association when expanded.

“I want to make sure that we’re putting our pressure where we can actually do something,” Spano said.

Outside of politics, Spano said he enjoys spending time with his two kids, who are 11 and 9. He also likes to brew his own beer, golf, and attend sporting events and music shows. But these days, a lot of his attention is focused on his first campaign where he is actually the candidate.

“We’re at a really critical juncture in the history of this community,” Spano said. “I think I’m the right candidate for the time.”