From Twisting Arms To Kissing Pigs,
The Quest For Political Power In America -- In All Its Gore And Glory
Last fall, PBS left the press, the pundits, and the presidential hopefuls behind for a rollicking two-night ride on the American campaign trail. VOTE FOR ME -- POLITICS IN AMERICA is the first major television series to explore what it really takes to run for public office. Produced by award-winning filmmakers Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker, and Paul Stekler, with WETA, Washington, D.C., it's a series that departs from the usual horse race aspect of daily journalism and shows how local culture and customs are reflected in our politics.
VOTE FOR ME is not a high-school civics lesson. Politics, as one veteran campaigner puts it, is "show business for ugly people," and the series assembles a cast of political stars and wannabes as colorful and diverse as America itself. There's the mayor of a major city who kisses pigs at rallies, a profane media consultant who makes Jack the Ripper look warm and fuzzy, a desperate gubernatorial challenger who organizes media events that unfold at 3 AM in a chicken-parts factory, and a novice Congressional candidate who woos voters with her dulcimer and gospel singing.