Still in a home, by the skin of her teeth

‘A ... very mixed blessing’
“(The money) is not going to go a long way for that, that’s for sure. I guess I’ll just have to be working as long as I can until, you know, whenever it gets worse,” she says. “It’s a mixed — very mixed — blessing.”

Kennebeck works all day with people who are homeless or too poor to get by without assistance. But she also sees middle-class people working more and spending less with no relief in sight. She said one of her neighbors has taken on a third job, and a colleague is spending $750 a month — about half his total income — on health insurance for his family.

This summer, Kennebeck shared her home with a friend who lost her house last spring after a year-long struggle to keep up mortgage payments. The woman, who asked not to be named, had been working two jobs — even three for a time — but finally gave up after her water was cut off. She moved in with Kennebeck in May and stayed until early August, when she was able to move into a modest rental house.

Kennebeck grosses around $40,000 a year working for the tribe — more than the median in Cloquet, which is around $35,000, according to city administrator Brian Fritsinger. Cloquet trails areas such as the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where the median income is nearly $70,000, but it is slightly better off than many Iron Range communities. The town of about 11,200 people has a paper mill, a ceiling tile manufacturer and the Black Bear Casino — the town’s largest employer — on the Fond du Lac reservation.

“There are jobs here,” says Fritsinger. “There’s employment to be had, but wages are not necessarily at the level that provide everything you really need for a family.”

State and local officials are celebrating the prospect of major new investments in the region’s mining sector in years — driven by rising world demand for minerals and new technologies for refining them — a trend expected to bolster the Iron Range economy. Among them is a planned $300 million investment by U.S. Steel to expand the Keewatin Taconite operation, about 75 miles northwest of Duluth. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has predicted an “Iron Range Renaissance.”

David Friedman / msnbc.com Barbara Kennebeck recently purchased a scooter to reduce the amount she spends on gas while doing errands.

But the revival, if it is coming, has yet to hit Main Street.

Along Cloquet Avenue, colorful murals dress up some of the old brick-built businesses that line the street: Buskala’s Jewelry, Erickson Hardware, the Lumberjack Lounge, T&J Gun and Pawn, Rudy Law Firm and Ed’s Bakery. The busiest establishment appears to be the Mexico Linda restaurant.

The town has two claims to fame: as birthplace of actress Jessica Lange, who is said to keep a house here, and as home to the world’s only gas station designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The town just finished celebrating the station's 50th anniversary.

But downtown Cloquet has the hollowed-out feeling of many communities in middle America, in part because new development, including a Wal-Mart, has been centered on a highway on the northwest edge of town. Downtown store owners say the economic slump has made it tough to keep the doors open.

“When the economy is good, we do good,” says Joanne Buskala, whose jewelry store here has been in the family since 1881. “When the economy is bad, we do repairs.”

Gas before diamonds
On a weekday afternoon, the store is devoid of customers, and Buskala and her daughter, Joelyn, have decided to use the free time rearranging displays. Sales are way down, though Buskala won’t say by how much.

“When you’re paying $4 a gallon for gas, you don’t buy diamonds,” is all she’ll say.

Looking ahead to elections, she’s eager to throw the Republicans out of the White House. That would be in line with a long Democratic tradition in the state — called the Democratic Farmer Labor party in Minnesota — particularly in the Iron Range, where there is a strong labor union tradition.

Minnesota hasn’t sided with a Republican in a presidential election since 1972, when Richard Nixon took the White House by landslide. It returned to its Democratic ways four years later when native son Walter Mondale was on the winning ticket with Jimmy Carter. Minnesota has gone for Democrats by a smaller margin since then, narrowly choosing Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. One wildcard in Minnesota is an independent streak that propelled Reform Party candidate and former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura into the governor's office in 1998 on a libertarian-leaning platform.

Republicans hope the convention will push what is shaping up to be a close race in the state between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama back in their favor.

Back in her quiet store, Buskala isn't swayed by the Republican courtship of her state. But the former Hillary Clinton supporter also is wary of Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whom she feels lacks experience.

“I’ve been here since the 1970s, and the best economy this store has ever seen was in the 1990s,” she says. “I’d take the Clintons back in a heartbeat.”

Disgusted with his options
At Erickson’s Hardware — a dusty, workingman’s store just a few doors down, second-generation owner Roger Erickson has also felt the decline. He had to lay off his two part-time employees a couple of years ago. His is the only remaining independent hardware store in Cloquet, where there used to be five. At the moment, he’s seeing a slight uptick in business this year — but only, he believes, because gas is so expensive that people are reluctant to drive to Duluth.

As for the candidates, he won’t say who he’s leaning toward — only that he is disgusted.

“Maybe I won’t vote for anyone,” he says.

Kennebeck, who has usually voted for Democrats, says she is undecided with just more than two months remaining until the election.

She says the economy will be key in determining who gets her vote, adding that it will be the candidate who demonstrates that he “gets it.”

“The questions I will be asking myself when I make that decision is ‘Do they (the candidates) know what it is like to not have medical insurance for the family? Do they know what it is like to have to choose what bills to pay?” 

More from msnbc.com Racist webcam? TheGrio's test says no View an interactive, HD panorama of N.Y.'s 30 Rock Scoop: No Tiger cub on way for Rachel Uchitel Census workers wanted, local roots preferred Cosmic Log: Decades of future science Answer Desk: Gold may be riskier than it seems Send your holiday pictures to troops

MORE FROM GUT CHECK AMERICA

Gut Check America Section Front

Minnesota economy buffeted by crosscurrents Still in a home, by the skin of her teeth FirstPerson: Minnesota readers discuss economy Is it really just ‘the economy, stupid’? High energy costs cut two ways in Colorado Struggling at a million-dollar horse stable FirstPerson: Colorado readers discuss economy Gut Check America Section Front   Add Gut Check America headlines to your news reader: