Election night with the Ostrow campaign

6:45 p.m.
The former Union Bar has all the elements of a bad frat party. A balding, mustachioed fellow sprawls on the tattered couch at the edge of what was once a dance floor. An ancient organ and spackled upright piano hold a couple of battered cardboard boxes. On the black wall at the far end of the room, someone has taped a series of large pieces of papers on which the week’s tasks have been described. There’s not a keg in sight, though, and the stage is plastered with lawn signs advertising the longshot campaign of Minneapolis City Council Member Paul Ostrow. Eleven black desks ring the room, each equipped with a phone, but an hour before the polls close, only three staffers are attempting to roust the faithful from their living room chairs and push them out the door to vote.

Tara Trepanier, the assistant campaign manager, is running the show. She’s been with the campaign for six months, ever since she learned at a figure skating competition that U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo announced he was resigning after 28 years representing one of the country’s most liberal congressional districts and Ostrow announced he would run. It’s her first political campaign.

It’s also Ostrow’s first run for public office beyond his Northeast Minneapolis City Council ward, which he has represented for nine years. His hunt for DFL delegates at the district convention last May was a non-starter and his decision to compete in the primary against three better-known, better-financed candidates has been widely considered one of the most curious of the campaign season.

But on this primary election night, there’s no sense of foreboding among the mostly college-aged staffers here. Most are headed back to school after today’s vote. Trepanier, for her part, is on her way to Macedonia for a 27-month stint in the Peace Corps. “We’ll see how long I last,