1998 VT-SEN: Fred Tuttle stars in "Man with a Plan"

[Epaminondas]

You might have heard of the 1998 Vermont Senate election: an quirky farmer in his late 70s, Fred Tuttle, challenged the establishment Republican nominee in the primary and gained some fame after asking him farming rather than political questions during the debates, such as "how many teats a cow got?"

He beat his opponent 55-45, then immediately endorsed Pat Leahy who sailed to reelection.

It turns out this Fred Tuttle had acted in a 1996 comedy, Man with Plan, the plot of which uncannily foretold what would happen: a nobody wins an election to Congress after beating the establishment candidate.

Has anyone seen it? Or have a way to watch it?

[Coldstream]

Didn’t he run purely to draw attention to his mockumentary?

[kwabbit]

Tuttle is a local Vermont legend. My grandfather is also a spitting image of him.

[Epaminondas]

For those curious: Man with a Plan (1996)

Only available for sale as a VHS.

[Benjamin Frank]

There were a couple documentaries as well on U.S House races from 1994.

One that aired on PBS, which is described this way:
POV SEASON 9
FEATURE FILM | 05/27/1996 | 60 MINS
It’s baptism by fire when a political underdog takes on the closest thing to American royalty. Joshua Seftel gives us a gritty behind-the-scenes look at neophyte Kevin Vigilante’s campaign against Patrick Kennedy for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The New England physician learns the hard way how modern politics are fought in this Rhode Island race.

I remember this.  At the start of the campaign, Vigilante says something like "That Patrick Kennedy seems like a nice enough kid.  I just don't think he's qualified simply because he's a Kennedy."  By the end of the campaign,  Vigilante is shouting to the camera "I want to kill that Kennedy ass..."

https://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/takingonthekennedys/ (no video)

The other is The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer.  Democrat Lauterer ran against Republican Charles Taylor for the 11th District in North Carolina.  At the time, this district was called something like the 'bloody 11th' because no Representative had served more than two terms before being defeated from when the person elected in 1976 lost in 1980 until Charles Taylor, first elected in 1990 was reelected in 1994.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina%27s_11th_congressional_district

Lauterer was a minor celebrity, a television journalist who went around the rural parts of the state doing human interest stories, but she was not prepared for the people involved in this election.  I remember one voter she was speaking to after she mentioned the 'peace dividend' that was supposedly available to spend on domestic matters after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the voter replied something like "I worry if we let down our guard that we'll have a Red Dawn situation."

https://ashvegas.com/notes-from-maggie-lauterers-political-education/ (also no video)

video: https://vimeo.com/123433492