Twenty years ago a political debate on VPR pitted a retired dairy farmer against a Harvard-educated Vermont newcomer in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. We're looking at back on the Tuttle-McMullen debate, how it affected the 1998 election and what the debate says about Vermont politics and values.
The questions that piqued the public's interest in that debate were far from ordinary:
"What's a tedder?" "What's rowen?" "How many teats does a Holstein have, and how many does a Jersey have?"
Tuttle endeared himself to Vermont and national audiences when the septuagenarian dairy farmer from Tunbridge starred in the political satire Man With A Plan. Satire sprawled into real life when Tuttle joined the state's Republican primary for the Senate seat, facing off against lawyer and businessman Jack McMullen, who had worked for years in Massachusetts and established Vermont residency "the better part of two years" prior to seeking office.
The contrast between the two candidates was stark, culminating in the September 1998 VPR Switchboard debate where Tuttle's questions — ranging from agricultural terms to town pronunciations to dairy production — left his opponent with few answers. Tuttle would go on to win the primary and endorse his challenger, incumbent Sen. Patrick Leahy, during the November general election.
Longtime VPR statehouse reporter Bob Kinzel moderated the Tuttle-McMullen debate and joins Vermont Edition to discuss how the primary debate came together and how it influenced the final weeks of the campaign. Also joining the conversation is state Sen. Phil Baruth, whose writing and research on Vermont politics has looked at the 1998 campaign and the Tuttle-McMullen primary debate.
Broadcast live on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
