According to a story in this morning’s Strib, a 17-year-old is mounting a write-in campaign to get herself elected mayor of St. Mary’s Point, Minnesota. (It’s on the St. Croix, near Afton, I’m told.) Never mind that you have to be 21 to run for elected office in this state - in fact, never mind that she isn’t even old enough to vote for herself! - the kid is bound and determined to run City Hall, even if it takes a Supreme Court fight to get that awful ageist statute overturned. It’s all a really cute and inspiring story of civic engagement, until you get to the part about this girl’s parents being notorious local activists with several axes to grind. That sort of takes the shine off the whole thing, but it didn’t stop the underage candidate from getting herself facetime on Jimmy Kimmel Live and CNN.

Me, I’m all for this kind of thing. I can think of a number of local officials I wouldn’t mind seeing replaced by teenagers. Certainly no teen could throw tantrums any more absurd than Dick Day, and most kids are considerably less embarrassing than the (politically) late, unlamented Arlon Lindner. And honestly, can you imagine how pissed off those bickering twits on the Minneapolis City Council would be if they suddenly had to contend with a 17-year-old? It’d be beautiful.

Anyone else got any authority figures they wouldn’t mind switching with a high school senior?

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