Alleged Campaign Sign Vandal Accused Of Assaulting State House Rep.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Rep. Sarah Anderson was heading out for a day of campaigning Sunday when she saw a man damaging campaign signs near her Plymouth home.
She saw him kicking at her campaign sign -- then others.
Parking her car, Anderson confronted the man.
"I said, 'You can't do this!' And he said, 'Yes, I can, I'm an anarchist! I can do whatever I want!' And I said, 'No, you can't, that's not your property,'" Anderson said.
Anderson tried unsuccessfully to videotape the encounter as the man backed her into the street, swearing.
"And he charged at me again, and he said, 'Go kill yourself,' and I end up stepping here and there's traffic coming."
That's when Anderson got back in her car and saw the man walking on foot toward a gas station.
She drove to the station and captured a cellphone image of the man charging her -- again. He tried to stop her from leaving, punching her in the arm.
"I said, 'I'm leaving now. I'm leaving now.' And he was still with his head in my vehicle, just yelling," Anderson said. "He was irrational, just completely irrational."
Gas station staffers showed us where the confrontation likely occurred, away from public view.
There were no apparent witnesses, but they are checking security video.
And as for Anderson? She'll keep campaigning.
"This is not going to change me. I refuse. I cannot live in fear. I refuse," Anderson said.
