Editing Fred Tuttle (section)

==Later career==
Tuttle retired from farming in 1984 and engaged in gardening and other hobbies. After his retirement, he appeared in several [[Film|movie]]s directed by Vermont filmmaker [[John O'Brien (filmmaker)|John O'Brien]], including ''[[Nosey Parker (film)|Nosey Parker]]'' and ''[[Man with a Plan (film)|Man with a Plan]]''. He starred in the latter, playing a retired farmer who decides to run for U.S. Representative from Vermont.

In 1998, Tuttle was persuaded to run in the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] [[Partisan primary|primary]] as a way to publicize ''Man with a Plan''.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/09/98/us_midterms/197229.stm "Fred Tuttle: Man with a plan?"] BBC News, October 27, 1998</ref> His opponent was [[John A. McMullen|Jack McMullen]], a multi-millionaire who had lived in [[Massachusetts]] for most of his adult life. O'Brien and Tuttle targeted McMullen as a [[carpetbagger]] who apparently moved to Vermont for the sole purpose of establishing residency for a Senate run. The Vermont primary structure allows [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] and [[Independent (politician)|Independents]] to vote in the Republican primary, and many political observers foresaw the possibility that Tuttle could draw votes across party lines. 

Tuttle campaigned on a platform that seemed [[absurdism|absurdist]] by the standards of contemporary politics. McMullen and the state Republican Party challenged Tuttle's nominating petitions and got 95 signatures invalidated. Tuttle needed to obtain 23 more to stay on the ballot, and proceeded to obtain 2,309. McMullen sent flowers to while Tuttle was hospitalized for knee surgery.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/keyraces98/stories/vt090498.htm "Fred Tuttle for Senate: Why Not?"] ''The Washington Post'', September 4, 1998</ref>

During their debate on Vermont Public Radio, Tuttle asked a series of humorous local knowledge questions. McMullen was unable to correctly pronounce the names of several Vermont towns, or correctly answer Tuttle's dairy farming-related questions, such as "How many [[teat]]s a [[Holstein (cattle)|Holstein]] got?" answering "Six", instead of the correct four. In the primary, Tuttle defeated McMullen by ten percentage points and promptly endorsed the incumbent Democrat, [[Patrick Leahy]].

Tuttle's subsequent general election campaign continued to generate publicity. He made several joint appearances with Leahy and continued to endorse him, saying "He knows how many tits on a cow."<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989169,00.html "Lights, Camera&nbsp;... Fred!"] ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', September 28, 1998.</ref> Tuttle commented that he did not really want to win because he would have to move to [[Washington, D.C.]] Despite endorsing his opponent, Tuttle garnered 48,051 votes (22 percent of the vote) [[United States Senate election in Vermont, 1998|in the actual election]].

Tuttle was described by Senator Leahy as "the distilled essence of Vermonthood". He was considered by many to be an example of both the "everyman" and of the unique individualist.