Comments (0) Best Bureaucrat - 2005
Mariano Favazza
"I've never been a person who begs well," chuckles Mariano Favazza, describing his campaign fundraising. "I got elected on the strength of my children -- they legged out 25,000 flyers in 30 days. That's a lot of walking, brother." That was back in 1998, and Favazza, who raised roughly $10,000 in his bid to become St. Louis' circuit court clerk, has never looked back. The imminently accessible Favazza can be found on any given weekday cutting through red tape at his downtown office. He seems content in his job, but, as evidenced by his unsuccessful 2004 run for the Third Congressional District, Favazza has higher ambitions. So what's next for the 52-year-old bureaucrat? "Well, there is the open state senate seat," muses Favazza. "That's certainly something that at some point in my life I might be interested in." But wherever he goes from here, there is one thing he's sure of: As a father of eight, he says we can expect him to be working "until about six months after my death."
