Xcel Energy Center

Thanks for the memories. Now please go away. Yes, we’re talking about you, Rudy Giuliani. And you, Wolf Blitzer. We no longer wish to be a swing state. Henceforth the residents of the state of Minnesota promise to vote reliably Democratic. Or Republican. It doesn’t much matter which — just as long as you people promise to stop showing up in our little slice of the frozen tundra seeking to feel our pain. But to memorialize the horrors visited upon us during the (still ongoing) campaign season, we offer — in honor of our favorite member of the Statewide General Election Canvassing Board — the G. Barry Anderson Awards.

Yesterday Steve Perry and I ventured over to St. Paul to talk with staff and clients at the Dorothy Day Center, the homeless shelter, drop-in center and emergency foodshelf that sits across the street a few hundred feet from the arena where the GOP’s big swinging trunks will gather next Monday.

We learned that while the center will remain open during the Republican National Convention, it won’t exactly be business as usual. Details, and reactions from some of the people who hang their hats there, in this MnIndy video report.