There’s 191 days until this fall’s election, and there’s one race that we at USDemocrazy have yet to cover…Leslie Knope’s bid for City Council.

For those uninformed, Leslie Knopes is the fictional character in the popular NBC comedy Parks and Recreation played by Amy Poehler.

The Pawnee native and employee of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is challenging Bobby Newport – a daddy’s boy who threatens to close down Pawnee’s biggest employer, the Sweetums factory, if he’s not elected.

But Knope’s got one big edge over Newport in this fictional municipal election – a real life endorsement from AFSCME (the American Federation of State, Municipal, and County Employees).  Check out their rally for Knope below!

The union’s endorsement is a self-admitted attempt to get Amy Poehler to speak at their national convention.

An AFSCME employee explains why the union loves Knope and her team at the Pawnee Parks and Rec Department.

We love the show because too often public service workers are vilified by the media.

Instead Knope is a go-getter with the best intentions.  The show has taken relevant issues like tight budgets, machine politics, same-sex marriage (between penguins, but still), Tea Party politics as espoused by the show’s cult-like icon Ron Swanson, class-warfare between Pawnee and it’s rich neighbor town, and US-Venezuela relations.

Parks and Rec is this decade’s The West Wing – portraying government as for the masses, hard-working, and idealistic as well as preaching loud and proud that all politics is local.  And apparently, it’s working.  Over 16,000 fans have liked Knope 2012 on facebook and are demanding bumper stickers and yard signs.

Does Knope get your endorsement for Pawnee City Council?  How does the enthusiasm for Knope’s politics and leadership compare with the country’s dissatisfaction with politicians and government today?