Ben Wyatt was elected mayor of Partridge, Minnesota, at age 18.
Before joining Pawnee’s government, Ben led what he called an “anti-establishment voter rebellion” in his hometown. His victory made him mayor while still very young, but his lack of political and financial experience quickly became disastrous. He approved construction of a winter-sports complex called Ice Town, a project that was never completed.
After only two months in office, Ben was impeached. The failed project bankrupted Partridge and helped push the town’s unemployment rate to 30 percent. The humiliating episode produced the newspaper headline “Ice Town Costs Ice Clown His Town Crown,” one of the show’s most memorable jokes about Ben’s past.
Ben later rebuilt his career as an accountant and state auditor. His mayoral history is revealed when he first arrives in Pawnee and is revisited in the season-five episode “Partridge,” when his hometown stages a mock ceremony honoring—and ridiculing—his infamous tenure. The age is sometimes confused with the later point in his career when he attended Carleton College.