Get the Real Poop about Montpelier,
Vermont, at Political Poop:
The following has been provided on
this site by third parties living and residing in Montpelier
Vermont the State's Capital.
Coming Soon
an in depth look at "the Smart Plan" & Chris Smart
in Montpelier Vermont
William
Fraser and cohort Vallerie "InCapels" had a not so smart idea one
day when they thought about changing the Quintinessential Vermont
Capital City of Montpelier. The City decided with it's vast
wisdom to forsake over 30 years of continuous citizen input...and adopt
the "so called" Smart Code (definitely not created by a
Smart man). The NOT so Smart Code was brought to Montpelier
by a not so Smart Man named Chris Smart, who recently moved to
Montpelier and decided he needed to endow the City with his Smart
Ideas...like the NOT so Smart Code. We at Political Poop
invite you our reader to tell us your opinions on the Smart Code
and Chris Smart of Montpelier Vermont:
Is the picture Below a
Picture of William Fraser thinking about the Smart Code?
Political Poop dot Com wants to Remind you our
Reader to Do Your Patriotic Duty...
What will you be discussing at
"the Water Cooler"?
Milking the Home-Turf Advantage: Personality
over Politics in the Vermont Primary
Michael J. Ring
Many
candidates and voters view politics as a struggle of ideology. But
perhaps just as frequently, politics is about people and
personality as well. The recent Republican primary election for
one of Vermont's seats in the U.S. Senate is a case study in the
political power of personality.
The
presumed favorite in this race was Jack McMullen, a highly
successful corporate consultant. With years of experience in the
business world and plenty of money to finance his campaign,
McMullen could seem at first glance to be a prohibitive favorite.
His
primary opponent, Fred Tuttle, is pushing 80 years of age. A
retired dairy farmer and high school dropout, Tuttle has neither
political experience or money. Yet when the ballots were counted,
Tuttle had won the support of 55 percent of the state's voting
Republicans and earned the right to challenge the Democratic
incumbent, Patrick Leahy, in the fall. The story of Tuttle's
campaign and his reasons for opposing McMullen form one of the
most light-hearted epics of this political cycle dominated by
scandal and sleaze.
Remarkably,
Tuttle's primary victory is a case of life imitating art. He
starred in a local, low-budget film in which he followed a similar
path to public life. Man with A Plan, produced by Tuttle's
neighbor, sheep farmer John O'Brien, stars Tuttle as a poor farmer
who runs for Congress to raise money for his ailing farm and
upsets the incumbent. After the movie screened in Vermont, Tuttle
earned local celebrity status, winning write-in votes for offices
ranging from state treasurer to President.
Enter
the consultant McMullen, the darling of the state's Republican
establishment for the Senate race. A Bostonian, McMullen switched
his voting residence to a Vermont vacation home a year before this
election. To many Vermonters he looks and smells like a
carpetbagger. Tuttle, who refers to the consultant as a
"flat-lander", was encouraged to enter the Senate race
by film producer O'Brien and sprung into action.
The
primary campaign was a campaign of style, not substance. While
McMullen loaned his campaign $227,000, Tuttle told Vermonters he'd
only spend $16 on his campaign - the cost to register for the
primary. McMullen was well-financed; Tuttle hosted a
nickel-a-plate fundraiser at his home (portable toilets rented for
the occasion caused him to spend a whopping $200 on his campaign,
not the $16 he had initially stated). The farmer hit the campaign
trail in blue overalls and a baseball cap simply reading
"Fred." Manure spreaders were postered with bumper
stickers reading, "Spread Fred." Tuttle was using humor
and wit instead of money to send his message that McMullen was not
a true Vermonter, and it was connecting with voters.
A
debate the week before the election iced the victory for Tuttle.
In the Lincoln-Douglas portion of the debate, the dairy farmer did
not ask his opponent about tax cuts or crime or welfare. Instead
Tuttle opened by asking, "What's a tedder?" The hapless
city slicker had no idea it tossed hay for the purpose of drying.
McMullen was then asked how many teats were on a cow. He said six;
the correct answer is four. In a final test of McMullen's
knowledge of the Green Mountain State, he was given by Tuttle a
list of Vermont locales and asked to pronounce them. He failed to
pronounce Leicester and mangled Calais, saying the French
pronunciation "cal-lay" instead of the colloquial
"cal-is". The next week Tuttle won the election
convincingly, 55 percent to 45 percent.
Tuttle
had earlier intimated that he would not campaign against Leahy if
he garnered the Republican nomination. However, addressing his
earlier hints, he said, "I can't. Everybody wants me
now." Tuttle believes Leahy will win, calling the incumbent
"a good man."
Needless
to say, the state Republican leadership was angered that a
presumed joke candidate such as Tuttle would topple a challenger
who seriously wished to engage Leahy. Many believed Tuttle's
campaign was nothing but a publicity stunt for O'Brien's film,
which will be screened on PBS in the fall. Certainly, Tuttle was
more concerned with stopping McMullen from getting the nomination
then electing a Republican senator.
Their
fears, however, are unfounded in that neither Tuttle nor McMullen
would have much of a chance at defeating Leahy anyway. A highly
respected senator having served four terms, Leahy holds the
ranking minority position on the Judiciary committee and is
respected by senators on both sides of the aisle. Additionally,
Vermont has undergone a political transition and is now a liberal
state. Today's Vermont is a far cry from the state that voted for
Alfred Landon over Franklin Roosevelt in 1936: today it sends
Leahy, a liberal Republican senator, and a socialist
representative to Washington. Leahy's seat is safely Democratic,
so in political reality the result of this primary was
inconsequential.
Although
Vermont may have shed its conservative bent, it has retained its
small-town atmosphere and attitude. The state is still a slice of
rural Americana: trusting of its own, suspicious of outsiders. In
most states McMullen would have been an easy winner, but in
Vermont money doesn't talk - community roots do.
In
this political cycle of hubris, money, and scandal, the tale of a
man named Fred is heartwarming to those of us who still believe in
the American republic. Fred Tuttle has taught us that there are
still times when elections cannot be bought, that a simple, honest
man can win the hearts and votes of the people, and that politics
can still be practiced with a smile and a laugh, not a scowl and a
lawsuit.
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