Superior Mayor Jim Paine has always been drawn to his home, Superior. “I was stationed in Hawaii, [for the Marines] I considered staying there. But at the end of the day, I really wanted to come home; I wanted to live in Superior. I wanted to experience seasons again, I wanted to be on the lake,” said Paine.
“I applied [at UW-Superior], I came home, I started school, and then eventually switched my major to history because I really love the program…I started getting involved in student politics, and that’s how I arrived and stayed at UWS.”
By 2007, Paine graduated with a bachelor’s in history and a minor in sociology, eventually getting a master’s degree in advocacy and political leadership from the University of Minnesota Duluth which is now offered through Metro State University.
Yet lessons learned through UWS still linger from his time in Student Government Association. “But SGA, I often joke, was my second major. I put a lot of time and attention into it. To this day, I describe it as the toughest politics I’ve ever endured. Student politics was pretty brutal, but I learned a lot,” described Paine.
Paine’s work in SGA even affects students today. “We were the generation that built the Yellowjacket Union. We made the decision to build a new building. That was us. But also, we got to go down and lobby the state legislature to build Swenson,” said Paine.
SGA isn’t where Paine’s political journey began. A fifth grade visit to the mayor’s office is what initially sparked his interest in politics, which is why including fifth graders in Superior is something Paine prioritizes.
“I go to fifth grade classes, pretty much every single one, every single year. And I say the same thing to fifth graders now. And I say, ‘Listen; the city is yours. It belongs to you. You are in charge of it.’”
Empowerment of college students also stems from Paine’s time as a student with the mission to create a non-voting ex-officio member for the Superior City Council to give students a say in city decisions.
Paine had gone to the mayor at the time, in the 2000s, but was turned down. “He said that students should play no role in government or society because he felt that students weren’t taxpayers… and that they shouldn’t be given any voice at all,” Paine said.
Paine succeeded, however, when the chair of the county board invited him onto the Douglas County Board. He received a seat in the council. His goal to this day is to give the student body the respect it actually deserves.
“This is my neighborhood. I work out at the gym [at UWS]. So, I’m pretty passionate about defending that student body and that school,” Paine said.
Advice from Paine for students who want to be leaders stems from his time in the Marines. Paine states, “Rule #4 is ‘wash the dishes.’ And this is, I think, especially relevant to students that want to succeed or hold some sort of high office, whether it’s in the private sector or public life. Everybody wants to be in charge of something. Everybody wants that title.”
Paine continues, “Take the job nobody else wants and do it. Be the person that’s valuable to everybody, that doesn’t get any special status but does something that just matters and is important. Be reliable, be somebody they can count on, help do the actual work. The titles will come if you do that.”
For Mayor Jim Paine, all people in Superior matter. He said, “There is nothing more important to community service than community service.”