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This week marks the 30th anniversary of the 1996 Vermont cult classic "Man With a Plan," a film that chronicles the fictional adventures of real-life Orange County dairy farmer Fred Tuttle, who in the film wins an unlikely bid for U.S. Congress by a single vote.

"Vermont's the kind of place where anybody could win a race," O'Brien said.

In an astounding turn of events, Tuttle joined and won an actual U.S. Senate primary two years later at O'Brien's urging, defeating Republican millionaire Jack McMullen in a financially unbalanced contest. The result followed a famous Vermont Public Radio debate in which Tuttle challenged his adversary to pronounce "Calais," and state the number of teats on a Holstein. He later campaigned on behalf of his nominal opponent in the general election, former U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

But as intended, the audacious political maneuver brought new eyes to O'Brien's project.

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It's not lost on O'Brien that the film's themes are painfully familiar to today's lawmakers. In "Man With a Plan," Tuttle, who died at 84 in 2003, initially eyes a job in Congress primarily for its salary, which would pay for his father's hip replacement.

"You can't afford health care, dairy farms are going out of business ... Fred's taking care of his 98-year-old father," O'Brien said. "All those issues are very relevant today."

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