The best smackdown of a rich republican candidate ever.
At least the most entertaining one.
Frederick Herman "Fred" Tuttle (July 18, 1919 – October 4, 2003) was an American dairy farmer, film actor and 1998 candidate for the U.S. Senate from the state of Vermont.
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In 1998 Tuttle was persuaded to run in the Republican U.S. Senate primary. His opponent was Jack McMullen, a multi-millionaire who had lived in Massachusetts for most of his life. McMullen faced opposition from some Vermont Republicans who felt that he was a carpetbagger who apparently moved to Vermont for the sole purpose of establishing residency for a Senate run. The Vermont primary structure allows Democrats and Independents to vote in the Republican primary, and many people foresaw the possibility that Tuttle would beat McMullen by drawing votes across party lines. In addition, some may have hoped that a Tuttle campaign would help to publicize the film Man with a Plan.[2]
The ensuing campaign was remarkable in many ways. Tuttle campaigned on a platform that seemed absurdist by the standards of contemporary politics. McMullen and the state Republican Party challenged Tuttle's ballot petition and got 95 of his signatures invalidated. Tuttle needed 23 more to stay on the ballot and he received 2,309 more signatures. McMullen then gave flowers to Tuttle in the hospital while Tuttle was there for knee surgery.[3]
During the radio-broadcast debate, Tuttle asked a series of humorous local knowledge questions rather than political questions. McMullen was unable to correctly pronounce the names of several Vermont towns, or correctly answer Fred's question "How many teats a Holstein got?" answering "Six", instead of the correct "Four". In the primary, Tuttle defeated McMullen by ten percentage points. Winning the primary with 55 percent of the vote, Tuttle promptly endorsed the incumbent Democrat, Patrick Leahy.
Tuttle's election campaign against Democrat Senator Leahy, now his opponent in this US Senate election, was notable for the continuing publicity Tuttle received and for his continued endorsement of Leahy, of whom Tuttle said, "He knows how many tits on a cow."[4] Tuttle commented that he did not really want to win because he would have to move to Washington, D.C.. Despite his endorsement of his opponent, Tuttle garnered 48,051 votes (22 percent of the vote) in the actual election.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Tuttle
The movie that inspired his run:
Man With A Plan was an independently produced satire released in 1996, starring dairy farmer and actor Fred Tuttle as himself in a fictional story that finds him running for the U.S. House of Representatives. Since its release, it has remained a local cult classic in Vermont.[citation needed] Many details of the film can be read as poking fun at certain public figures and groups in Vermont; for example, Fred describes himself as being affiliated with the "Regressive Party," a clear reference to the Vermont Progressive Party. The fictional incumbent Representative William Blachly also bears a definite resemblance to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy.[citation needed] Parts of the film also seem to satirize American politics, in ways that the voice-over narration makes explicit—for example, it is made very clear at the beginning of the film that Fred's main reason in running for office is that he lacks the skills, strength, and education for any other job that would be lucrative enough to pay his father's costly medical bills. It is also made obvious during the campaign section of the film that Fred's victory is entirely the result of his charisma and charm, rather than of any amount of political savvy or wisdom.
Tuttle would go on to run for office for real, for the United States Senate in 1998. He won the Republican nomination and eventually was defeated by Democratic incumbent Senator Patrick Leahy, whom Tuttle famously endorsed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_with_a_Plan
= new reply since forum marked as read
