Hank The Cat comes 3rd in VA senate race

[HipChick]

The battle for the U.S. Senate between Tim Kaine and George Allen in Virginia may have been settled in the litter box instead of the ballot box if the tightly contested election had come down to about 6,000 votes given to a cat.

[img][/img]


It’s entirely possible that third-place finisher in Virginia is Hank the Cat, a Maine Coon who ran on a pro-feline, job-creation platform.

In the current online results, Kaine is ahead of Allen by about 184,000 votes as of Thursday morning. The race was expected to be very close, and it was part of a record spending spree in the state that also featured a tight race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

But an examination of the official voting ballot online shows that there apparently wasn’t a candidate from a known third party listed on the ballot below Kaine and Allen, unlike past years. There also isn’t a third-party candidate listed on the election board website among its election results.

Hank the Cat had been running for the U.S. Senate since last winter as a part of a spoof on the modern election process. He received extended coverage in The Washington Post in February.

Hank even wrote a campaign blog for The Huffington Post in October, praising another cat running for office in Canada, Tuxedo Stan. That was after Hank survived an attack ad launched by a faux pro-dog super PAC.

Unfortunately for Hank, TV show host Ellen DeGeneres gave a public endorsement to Stan, and not Hank, on her show.

“I don’t like to get political—but I would vote for that cat,” she said.

While having a cat run for the Senate may seem like a joking matter, a total of more than 6,000 votes in a close election isn’t.

A future president, Lyndon B. Johnson, won his first U.S. Senate race in Texas by 27 votes. And we all know how close the 2000 presidential race was in Florida.

http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2012/11/cat-appears-to-come-in-third-in-virginia%E2%80%99s-u-s-senate-race/

[NV Whino]

1. Had Hank been running for senate in CA I would have voted for him

[madinmaryland]

2. 39% think a cat should be able to run for the Senate if it can produce a birth certificate!!

[Puregonzo1188]

3. Maine Coon cats are highly intelligent...Senators not so much.

[HipChick]

4. Good point