City Government
Ape Out Polls City Candidates
November 18, 2007 
The GUARDIAN has come up with a solution for the pitiful turnout in the recent lackluster City Elections–get a bunch of monkeys to run.
Zoo Boise had just one such candidate in a recent election–a little female gibbon–and she garnered nearly twice as many votes as any of the candidates in the other city election (the one for mayor and council) with 53,000 ballots cast in her favor.
The Daily Paper proclaimed on the front page Sunday, “It’s official: Zoo Boise’s baby gibbon is Li Bao.” The Daily and Zoo Boise sponsored a vote to name the critter which–like many politicos–was rejected by its momma. The Boise vote didn’t have as much prominence in the Daily Paper if it even made front page after the election.
Li Bao is certainly more popular than any of the politicos at City Hall. We can all take heart that Li Bao could be around for as long as 40 years. Politicos are elected to four year terms–it just seems like 40.
Keeping with the trend of out sourcing to China, Li Bao is a Chinese name meaning “beautiful princess.” That title would probably ring hollow in other political circles with the exception perhaps of the U.S.Capitol.
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Comments & Discussion
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Nov 18, 2007, 9:34 am
Another way is to let you vote as many time as you want, online, and give elementary schoolers a reason to pound on the mouse:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/ourtowns/story/208453.html
“Nearly 21,000 voters went to the polls last week to re-elect Mayor Dave Bieter by a landslide.
But almost three times that many votes — 53,868 — were cast in the Idaho Statesman’s contest to name Zoo Boise’s baby gibbon. (It might be smart for politicians to be seen kissing baby gibbons rather than human babies!)
It’s true, the Statesman put no limit on the number of votes cast to name the infant ape. And we can neither confirm nor deny rumors that certain fourth-graders spent extra time in the computer lab stuffing the digital ballot box. But we understand why they might have gone to such effort: The class whose name is chosen will win a behind-the-scenes tour of Zoo Boise.”
Nov 18, 2007, 9:42 am
Perhaps the human candidates need to be cuter, with more body hair, or maybe we need to go back to partisan city elections, (donkeys vs. elephants) to encourage more folks to vote for the animal of their choice.
Nov 18, 2007, 9:45 am
Guardian, I think maybe you are operating on bad information!
From what I have heard, Davey and four members of the council actually ARE monkeys that have been successfully trained by the world renowned trainers at the Gallatin group.
Even though Davey had to undergrow a little “re-training” last year, (The rumor is that it took almost an entire bushel of banana’s)their success must be recognized. My hat must come off to those masterful trainers at Gallatin, they are the best to come down the road since Seigrfred and Roy.
Oh, and as far as Vern and Tibbs are concerned, they were deemed “untrainable” early on and the rest of the “troupe” were trained to simply ignore them.
Nov 18, 2007, 9:50 am
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Oh, sorry.