Brendan Finn, chief of staff to City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, had been considering a bid for city council. He’d planned to make an announcement last month, but the possible entry of his mentor, Maria Rojo de Steffey had him still thinking hard about whether or not to run.

When he heard last night that Erik Sten was stepping down, creating a second open seat for this May’s primary election, he decided to jump in. He also stayed up all night thinking about all he has to do—like whether or not he’ll be able to utilize the public financing program, a system he supports, with the truncated time frame—and he shaved his beard. He was going for the clean cut look, but it’s inarguable that the new style makes him look even younger than 35. In other words, there’s an echo of Erik Sten 10 years ago, a guy vying to be the voice of the younger generation on the council.

That analogy isn’t lost on Finn—he points out that his current chief of staff office is the same one Sten had when he staffed Gretchen Kafoury. And, he says, he might ask Sten if the infamous Stenmobile is available for rent.

(Other possible candidates for the seat: Sten staffer Rich Rodgers has been thinking about a bid for awhile now. He says he’s still thinking about the impact on his family, and acknowledges that Sten’s decision changes things a bit—there’s now a second open seat, and open seats are not all that common. He says he’ll likely decide one way or another this week.)

Also, Sten was bombarded by TV cameras when he entered city hall a few minutes ago. I’ll post more from him later, but he did have something to say about his announcement’s impact on the May election: “There’s a great field of candidates the likes of which has never been seen,” he said, thanks to an open seat combined with public financing. His departure creates a second open seat, and “doubles their chance of winning.”

Stay tuned for more on how a special election and public financing would work together (i.e., would candidates get an extension to collect their contributions?), and whether any candidates from the current open seat plan to make the leap to the new one—which, to clarify, hasn’t technically opened yet. Sten has to submit a letter of resignation to the auditor, and hasn’t done that quite yet.