Richard St. Paul
Age: 33
Council Member, New Rochelle
Nickname: “Big Papa”
New Rochelle City Council Member Richard St. Paul started in the Bronx and found himself just north of the city, but he credits New Jersey for getting him there. Deciding that the Bronx during the late 1970s and ’80s was nowhere to raise her son, St. Paul’s mother packed their bags for Montclair.
“It’s very much similar to the diversity of New Rochelle,” he said.
St. Paul remembers first becoming interested in politics through the prism of foreign events. “I was studying social studies, and I was reading about the Iraq-Iran war and all the different issues taking place because of the war,” he said. “I was thinking about how, in my life, how I could help people.”
This sense of wanting to help people has driven St. Paul ever since. “Drive” might be the operative word in that sentence: As a freshman at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, St. Paul was a walk-on for their football team. The next year he was starting—and holding a full-ride athletic scholarship. He majored in political science and minored in pre-law.
Later, while attending Widener law school in Pennsylvania, St. Paul took a semester off to go on active duty with the army reserves as a member of the Judge Advocate General Legal Service organization. Since leaving law school he has held a wide variety of political positions, from the Bush/Cheney 2004 reelection campaign to Jeanine Pirro’s 2006 bid for the Senate.
After working on a number of campaigns, St. Paul found himself back in Southern New York. Having always wanted to run for office, he took the first opportunity during the 2007 election for New Rochelle City Council. He ran as a Republican, and won by 16 votes in a district that is enrolled approximately three-to-one Democratic.
“There’s no Democrat or Republican way to pick up the trash,” said St. Paul, who is currently considering a run for mayor of New Rochelle. “On the local level, people respond to why they should vote for you.”
How did your past jobs get you to where you are now? “Your experience from one job, you take to the other. You build a foundation from one, and you build up to the other.”
If you were not in politics, what would you be doing? “Lawyer.”
Five years from now, what will it say on your business card? “‘Father, husband, humanitarian.’”
Full version: http://nycapitolnews.com/2011/05/rising-stars-2011/
Richard St. Paul