My husband and I, while house-sitting for a friend in Pensacola Beach, were startled to hear on CNN Headline News last Tuesday morning that a new candidate for mayor has burst upon the political scene in nearby Fairhope, Ala. He is a handsome, unpretentious fellow, and while he possesses an astute faculty for sniffing out an opponent’s weakness, he is, on the surface, friendly to one and all. Just another politician, you might be thinking. You would be wrong.

This new candidate can usually be found at the local coffee shop, lolling about on the beige leather couch, listening to worthy citizens air their grievances about community problems. So good a listener is he that folks often forget he’s there — he is privy to more information than he probably ought to be. Willie Bean always knows what’s blowing in the wind, but he is nothing if not circumspect. He knows how to keep his mouth shut.

Strange in a politician, you might say. And indeed, Willie Bean Roscoe P Coltrane is not a personage one typically encounters in the political arena. Willie Bean is a yellow lab. Yes, a Labrador retriever.

Ah, a yellow-dog Democrat, you’re thinking. Wrong again. Willie Bean is running as an independent, and with good reason. But we need to back up.

While not an unwilling candidate, Willie more or less backed in to the mayoral contest. Seems as if every fourth citizen in Fairhope has declared for the job, and every last one of them campaigns hard and often on the premises of the Coffee Loft. When one of said candidates posted a campaign sign on property just inches from the parking lot, manager Tress Turner knew something had to be done. The Coffee Loft’s clientele might conclude that she and her staff were taking sides in the race. Bad for business. But what to do?

Happily, Tress’s dog, Willie Bean, was lying nearby. He yawned, sighed and drifted off to sleep. When he woke up, he was running for mayor.

Tress hand-lettered his campaign sign and hung it over the front door Tuesday two weeks ago:

“Willie Bean for Mayor

A Leg Up on the Competition

A Doggone Good Choice”

A reporter for the Mobile Press-Register moseyed by and wrote up Willie’s candidacy. Then the NBC and CBS affiliates in Mobile arrived to do interviews. By last Tuesday morning of this week, CNN had sent the story all over the world.

I drove the few miles from Pensacola to Fairhope and dropped in on the candidate at the Coffee Loft. Tress came out from behind the counter, waving her arms and looking perplexed.

“I’ve been fielding calls about Willie from all over the world today,” she said. “England, Germany, Brazil. I was interviewed on a Canadian radio show today!”

She sat down on Willie Bean’s beige couch.

“Things were just getting too tense in this mayor’s race. Willie Bean’s entry into politics took the edge off. He’s a candidate anyone can support.”

The main plank in his platform is a cleaner Mobile Bay. He’s fed up with getting ear infections every time he goes for a swim.

How did you come up with his name, I asked.

“I wanted him to have a real country-boy name,” Tress replied. She is a native of New Orleans.

And what does the “P” stand for? “Nothing,” she said, “there’s no period after it.”

Willie Bean frisked over to be introduced. He is lean, lithe and good-looking, a credit to canines everywhere. He leaped to the couch with practiced ease and posed for pictures with patience and grace.

With Obama leading a parade through Europe and the Middle East, and McCain back home fretfully trying to divert some of the attention to himself, I’ve grown a little tense about politics myself lately. I’m weary of the campaigns, worried about the country and wary of both candidates, frankly. If you feel the same way, why don’t you visit Willie Bean’s Web site, www.williebeanformayor.com, and urge him to consider a run for president. He has little governing experience to be sure, but that does not seem to be a pre-requisite for the presidency anymore. Even now, he enjoys an edge over the other two candidates: the people who are behind him have their pooper-scoopers already in hand.

Carol Megathlin is a writer living in Savannah, Ga. She graduated from the University of Georgia and is retired from the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah, where she was the public information officer. She and her husband, Bill, enjoy boating in the coastal waters around Savannah with their chocolate lab named Brody. At one time Carol owned a condo in Fairhope and enjoyed getting to know writer friends here.

Carol may be reached at carol.megathlin@comcast.net.