‘Parks and Recreation’ takes crusade to D.C.

Look out senators — Leslie Knope is coming to find you, and she won’t take “no” for an answer. 

As NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” concludes its seven-season run, the Pawnee parks director turned National Park Service bureaucrat played by Amy Poehler headed to Capitol Hill in Wednesday’s episode to lobby some familiar faces.  

{mosads}Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) all had cameos in Tuesday night’s episode, which centered on the fictional Knope meeting with them about the Park Service.

In her meeting with Boxer, the California senator told Knope that, “if it’s good with Leslie, it’s good for me,” endorsing her plan to preserve spending for national parks. Knope then, unsuccessfully, tried to elbow her way into a meeting Boxer was about to have with the president. 

Knope cornered Gillibrand, too, outside the Capitol and won her support — then convinced the New York senator to autograph her biography, where Knope already preinscribed a note: “To Leslie, my inspiration, my muse, my partner in crime. I owe it all to you.”  

McCain tried to run away, but his excuse that he had a meeting fell flat with Knope, who’d already checked the senator’s schedule and found that he did, in fact, have a free 30-minute block.  

“Did anyone ever tell you that your tenacity can be intimidating?” McCain grumbled, as Knope retorted, “Yes, every month of my life since fourth grade. Now, let’s talk about parks.” 

Booker and Hatch struck a bipartisan note on the show, in more ways than one. When Knope and her assistant April Ludgate-Dwyer, played by Aubrey Plaza, were shocked that the senators of differing political stripes could agree on parks funding, Hatch explained that the two were simply “concerned about our natural resources.” 

“That’s not all we have in common,” Booker interjected. “In fact, our real passion is Polynesian folk music,” inviting the bureaucrats to the Georgetown concert that evening of their band “Across the Isle.” 

While there’s sadly no real life evidence the duo’s band exists, Hatch does have musical inclinations of his own — he’s a songwriter and musician who has put out his own album. 

Their collaboration might have already produced some bipartisan comity, though. Booker tweeted a photo Tuesday evening of his staff and Hatch’s huddled together to watch the episode. 

Some across the isle, bi-partisan bonding with my staff and Senator Hatch’s staff. #ParksandRec http://t.co/Jlt35GsFwK

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) February 11, 2015

Both Boxer and McCain had previously appeared on “Parks,” also playing themselves in the show’s 5th season premiere. 

But their appearance in the show this time might not have been true to time. For their final season, “Parks” jumped ahead three years to 2017. Boxer has already announced she isn’t running for reelection and will retire in 2016.  

The good news for McCain, though, is that he’s still around in 2017, at least in the “Parks” universe — the 2008 GOP presidential nominee could face a tough primary challenge this cycle. 

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also made a cameo on Tuesday’s episode, brunching on Leslie’s favorite food with her new BFF at the real-life “Lincoln’s Waffle Shop” across from Ford’s Theatre.  

It may not be the last trip to Washington for Knope — she also accepted a promotion within the Department of Interior during the episode, requiring a move away from her beloved Pawnee, Ind., to the nation’s capital. 

The new job could be fortuitous timing, though. In another end-of-series arc, Leslie’s husband, Pawnee City Manager Ben Wyatt, is undertaking a primary challenge to an entrenched incumbent in Indiana’s 10th District. 

The Hoosier State, however, only has nine congressional districts in real life; reapportionment isn’t slated to happen until 2022.