Three years ago, a small Minnesota town discovered the secret to political harmony and prosperity: They elected a damn dog mayor. Now the dog, Duke, has been elected to a record third term in office.
Duke, a nine-year-old Great Pyrenees, was initially voted in as a joke, but no one is laughing now that he’s established a Huey Long-like chokehold on local politics. It all started in 2013, when 12 people paid $1 each (the election doubles as a fundraiser for a festival) to elect Duke as mayor of Cormorant.
“Three years ago it happened by accident. It was a write-in vote. You pay a dollar and you can vote,” David Rick, Duke’s owner, told ABC News. Now, it appears as though the combination of Duke’s political talents—being a good dog—and the big money supporting him has made him an unstoppable candidate.
“I don’t know who would run against him,” Karen Nelson, Duke’s “adoptive mother,” told WDAY.
In fact, only one town resident failed to vote for him. “Everybody voted for Duke, except for one vote for his girlfriend, Lassie,” Rick said. When he’s not busy running Cormorant, Duke somehow finds time to help out on his owners’ farm.
In this politically divided and terrible time, electing more dogs to public office seems like the only rational thing to do.
