My Life; St. Cloud City Councilman Jake Anderson [AUDIO]

St. Cloud City Councilman Jake Anderson is our next featured guest on WJON's My Life series.  Jake spent the first 7 years of his life living on the iron range in Virginia, Minnesota.  Both of his parents worked in the mines at Min Tech.  In 1987, when Jake was 7 years old, the family moved to St. Cloud.  He says his dad got a job at Becker's Sherco Power Plant where he worked until 2018 when he retired.  The family, which included Jake's younger brother, lived in an apartment on the east side of St. Cloud.  The family lived there for 1 year before Jake's parents bought a house on the south side of St. Cloud.  Jake's mother ended up getting her bachelor's degree in accounting at St. Cloud State and later worked for Banker's Systems for 10 years.

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Jake's interests growing up included fishing, playing sports with friends, Legos, computers and video games.  Jake is 6'8 and was always the tall kid in his class.  He says he played basketball but wasn't all that good at it.  Anderson recalls being cut from the freshman basketball team despite being the tallest player.  His interests in school included history, social studies and civics.  Jake wasn't a big fan of math.  Jake in high school and college was interested in volleyball and played intramurals.  He also participated in speech and debate in high school.

Following high school Jake moved onto college and he attended St. Cloud State.  He initially was interested in being a TV weather man.  Jake quickly realized that wasn't for him and turned his attention to other interests like political science and information systems.  He majored in information systems because computers and technology came easy to him and he saw a future in that profession.  Anderson graduated in 2003 with a degree in information systems.  Jake met his wife, Rachel, while in college and she graduated with an elementary education degree.  When Rachel graduated she got a job as a 4th grade teacher in Wickenburg, Arizona, about an hour north of Phoenix.

Jake got a job in Phoenix working for a printing company doing networking.  After a year in Arizona the couple decided to move back to Minnesota where Jake returned to work for GeoComm.  He worked there for a few years and then he took a job working for Stearns County in Information Technology as a Project Manager.  He's been in that position for 15 years.  Jake's wife changed professions in Minnesota from education to health care and is now employed by CentraCare.  She is also seeking her masters in nursing.

Jake first ran for political office while in college when he ran for St. Cloud mayor in 2001 where he finished 5th out of 6 in the primary.  In 2007 Jake ran for St. Cloud City Council in ward 3 and lost, in 2012 while on the planning commission he ran for a City Council at large position and lost.  In 2022 Jake recalls being begged to run for St. Cloud City Council ward 3 and this time he won.  Anderson is now running for St. Cloud Mayor again in 2024.  He is one of 6 candidates.

If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Jake Anderson, it is available below.