The one-story house sticks out from a distance, and not just for its hot pink stucco exterior, relatively small size and overgrown lawn. Broken windows and a visibly dilapidated roof offer some tell-tale clues. Inside, heaps of trash have rendered the Dayton’s Bluff house uninhabitable, according to the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections, which has posted vacate orders and sought to condemn the property.

Sharon Anderson photographed July 17, 2012. (Chris Polydoroff / Pioneer Press)

When neighbors asked police to do a welfare check on the 85-year-old occupant, they didn’t expect she’d be removed from the premises against her will, placed in an ambulance and hospitalized for weeks. Nor did some realize that the woman in question is running for political office and will appear on their November ballot.

Sharon Anderson, a perennial candidate for public office who frequently sues public officials, has run for a political seat — from governor to city council to U.S. President — almost annually since 1970, never winning a general election. In August, the 85-year-old gadfly unexpectedly won the Republican political primary for House District 67B, which represents a majority of St. Paul’s East Side.

As a result, Anderson, who defeated fellow GOP candidate AJ Plehal 52% to 48%, appears on the Nov. 5 ballot opposite state Rep. Jay Xiong, a DFLer who is up for re-election. Anderson said Friday she had been unaware she was still in the race until mid-September, when a social worker came to her hospital room with an article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Her goal in running, she said, is solely to update and clarify her title to her residence, as well as other real estate she claims to own.

“I didn’t know I won. I don’t want to win,” said Anderson on Friday, in a phone call from her hospital room. “All I want to do is quiet the title (to her house). I don’t want the damn job.”

Early voting began Sept. 20.

Free to leave

Anderson, who is prone to speaking in long, breathless eruptions of sometimes-contradictory information, said she had been in the downtown hospital since being forcibly removed from her home by police on Sept. 9.

She also indicated that a Ramsey County public health nurse had recommended her for transitional housing and told her she could leave the hospital at any time.

“Somebody said, are you civilly committed? I don’t think so,” Anderson said. “I’ve been here, good God, 34 days and nights. They say, well, I can walk out. Where am I going to walk out to? I can’t go back to my home.”

On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council will review Anderson’s appeal of a city condemnation order declaring her residence to be unfit for habitation. The inspections report lists nine principle code violations, including needed repairs to the roof, windows and locks.

The order also indicates water has been shut off, trash is piled in heaps across the living room and other living quarters, and sanitary conditions are unlivable. Photos accompanying the report are unflattering by anyone’s standards.

“Yes, I’m messy. (But) I’ve got water. It was not shut off,” Anderson said Friday. “I shut off the spigots. The only city water I use is the toilets.”

Property records show the one-story property carries an estimated market value of about $106,000 and is up to date in property tax payments.

The only ‘certified sane candidate’

This isn’t the first time Anderson has been hospitalized. In 1996, she spent at least 30 days in the Minnesota Security Treatment Center in St. Peter after being arrested for allegedly making violent threats against her then-husband. Following her release from the psychiatric facility, Anderson adopted the campaign motto that she was the only “certified sane candidate,” a saying she’s repeated across decades of fruitless election contests.

Anderson does not live downtown, but has repeatedly run for office using a Summit Avenue address she claims she was illegally evicted from in 1988.

As for the upcoming election, Anderson said she had no personal grudge against Xiong, the state representative she’s running against. “I’m not going to run against Asian people,” she said. “Asian people are good to their elders.”

Still, her latest fight with the city threatens to undermine her best chance in decades at winning elected office. “It’s an election contest,” she said. “For 34 days, I can’t campaign or anything.”

“I’m shocked that I’m being treated this way,” added Anderson, who said she is in good health but also said she’s going blind and has little time left. “I’m not going to live much longer.”

If there’s been a silver lining to her month-long stay at a downtown hospital, Anderson acknowledged it’s three square meals a day, and friendly nurses to check up on her. “The food is not bad here,” she said.

Related Articles

Over half a million Minnesotans have opted for absentee ballots in 2024, report says

Angie Craig, Joe Teirab spar on abortion, inflation, immigration in MPR debate

Suspicious package sent to Minn. elections office this week contained nonhazardous material

Key child care advocacy group stays mum on St. Paul’s child care subsidy ballot question

Candidate forums begin Saturday in Washington County