ANTHONY BROOKS, host:
Now to politics in Minnesota, where if you're a Democrat, you don't run for any office until you've stopped at Schneider's Drugstore. Once a month, pharmacist Tom Sengupta turns his store into a neighborhood town hall. For 20 years, candidates from Paul Wellstone to Walter Mondale have pass through Schneider's to talk politics.
Reporter Michael May dropped in for a visit.
MICHAEL MAY: It's clear from the start this isn't your typical campaign photo op.
Mr. TOM SENGUPTA (Owner, Schneider's Drugstore): Those are the issues that I'm having to deal with.
Unidentified Man #1: Oh, I understand. You know, oh but…
Mr. SENGUPTA: And - listen.
MAY: At this humble drugstore, Democratic candidates can hash out complex public policy goals with a tight-knit group of grassroots intellectuals, a sort of liberal tribe of elders.
Mr. SENGUPTA: I know it's morally wrong to go to war in Iraq, and it's also morally wrong that we - what we did to the society…
Unidentified Man #1 : I agree, but let me add…
Mr. SENGUPTA: You know, but…
Unidentified Man #1: Let me finish.
MAY: The soft-spoken, white haired owner of Schneider's Drugstore, Tom Sengupta, organizes the meetings. He acts as both moderator and agitator.
Tonight, U.S. senatorial candidate, attorney Mike Ciresi has dropped in to speak. Sengupta challenges Ciresi on his views about pulling troops out of Iraq.
Mr. MIKE CIRESI (Lawyer; U.S. Senatorial Candidate): I believe…
Mr. SENGUPTA: What happened to the problem with that?
Mr. CIRESI: I believe by giving them the benchmarks and telling them politically they have to do it and knowing that we're going to start drawing down our troops - I'm not saying you totally abandon them.
Mr. SENGUPTA: No. But we need to have better diplomacy…
Mr. CIRESI: I did not say that. I said that we start drawing down our troops, and we should be done with it…
Mr. SENGUPTA: Okay.
Mr. CIRESI: …by March.
Mr. SENGUPTA: (unintelligible) then after that, why don't say something?
MAY: The meetings are a natural extension of Sengupta's own political journey. He came to the United States from India in 1958 to go to college, got involved in the civil rights movement, and became enamored with the American political system - especially the Bill of Rights.
Mr. SENGUPTA: Immigrants can see that's much better than people who took it for granted, all the rights that came to them without thinking about it.
MAY: Sengupta became inspired by the populous message of Hubert Humphrey. He moved to Minnesota and bought the drugstore. He started the town hall meetings in 1988.
Mr. SENGUPTA: I strongly believe that if you talk about policies, you talk about ideas - you can change society.
MAY: Sengupta works at the store around 80 hours a week, and he sees political debate as just another service he offers. When first-time senatorial candidate Al Franken announced he was running, a major Democratic donor told him he had to go to Tom's drugstore. He did know quite what he was getting into.
Mr. AL FRANKEN (Political Commentator; U.S. Senatorial Candidate): I didn't think that I was, you know, going into the arena. I thought…
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FRANKEN: …I thought I was going to a drug store.
MAY: Franken found himself in a heated discussion about how to fix heath care. But he found the advice from the locals very helpful.
Mr. FRANKEN: So I got a lot of good information. And I learned a little bit about myself, which is that I actually felt good that was I able to hold my own with academes and activists and labor leaders when I agreed with them and when I disagree with them.
MAY: The meetings stretch on for hours. Participants argue, cajole, they interrupt the candidate - just like a group of cranky old friends.
Unidentified Man #2: How are you going to articulate an ethos of cooperation, not simply ruthless competition, and we're going to beat the Chinese, and the Indians…
Mr. CIRESI: I didn't say ruthless competition. I mean, come on.
Unidentified Man #2: What have you talked about?
Mr. CIRESI: Why do you - why does everything is feel like warfare? I mean, I mean, I didn't say - I didn't say ruthless competition, Harry.
Unidentified Man #2: I haven't heard you talk about ways to cooperate.
MAY: At around 10 o'clock, Sengupta calls the meeting to a close. People stay to chat, still buzzing from the heady debate. Finally, Sengupta comes up and puts his hand on Ciresi's shoulder.
Mr. SENGUPTA: Mike, can I give you one advice…
Mr. CIRESI: Yeah.
Mr. SENGUPTA: …in this campaign - get enough rest.
Mr. CIRESI: It's a long - it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Mr. SENGUPTA: That's right. Try to get enough rest.
Mr. CIRESI: Thank you. And with that good advice, I'm leaving.
Mr. SENGUPTA: Okay.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. CIRESI: Thanks, Tom.
MAY: For NPR News, I'm Michael May at Schneider's Drugstore in Minneapolis.
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