Fifteen years ago the town of Talkeetna, Alaska, elected a newborn kitten named Stubbs for mayor. Unsatisfied with the human candidates, the town of 900 convinced enough voters to write in “Stubbs,” making him both the youngest and most adorable mayor ever to represent anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Since that first election, Mayor Stubbs has remained in office, spending most of his time at the town’s general store shaking paws with townsfolk and passersby. According to NBC the little tiger has single-paw-edly turned the town from a little fishing village into a tourist attraction; those visiting Anchorage often treck out to Talkeetna to meet him.

Turning a whatever town into a tourist attraction is a serious achievement for any mayor, let alone a joke-mayor that’s a cat. Students of politics should study Mayor Stubbs’ great work and use his tactics in future city planning. And if that doesn’t work, we the people should take the matter into our own hands and start exclusively electing kittens into office (except in Newark—Cory Booker‘s still awesome). This will at least give everyone something to talk about other than Romney.