Amid the headline success of Barack Obama’s election, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock’s senate failures, and states legalising marijuana and gay marriage, the news that a cat placed third in the Virginia senate election seems to have gone almost unnoticed.

Hank the Cat was mooted as a joke candidate last winter, but when voters made their choice on Tuesday he reportedly received in the region of six thousand votes. This means that he came third, behind Republican George Allen and Democratic winner Tim Kaine.

Sadly it seems that even had he won, Hank would not have been constitutionally eligible to sit in the senate.