This reminds me of an election in Vermont several years ago. The Republican Party had put an imported, career politician up against Dem. Pat Leahy for the US Senate seat, so some local Vermonters convinced Fred Tuttle, a 70-some-year-old dairy farmer to run against this scalawag (carpetbagger?) in the Republican primary. In one of their debates Fred handed this guy (I'll remember his name sometime) a list of Vermont cities and towns and asked him to read it. The list included:
Charlotte (pron. shar-LOT)
Barre (BEAR-ry (kinda))
Berlin (BER-lin)
Vergennes (ver-JENZ)
and Randolph (RAN-doff, no L)
The guy flubbed 'em all and Fred won the primary. He lost to Leahy (but no one really had a chance against him). You still see "Spread Fred" bumper stickers around. Just goes to show you how important being local is to Vermonters.
